Daring To Bleed
by NessieGG
Summary: Sequel to 'Right Before His Eyes.' Caught between her past and her present, Tenten has to decide who will be her future. Gaara doesn't want to let go and Neji never did. [Neji x Tenten, Gaara x Tenten triangle] [Complete]
1. Now Another Land

**A/N**: Welcome to my second NejiTen multi-chap! This is actually the second draft of this fic's first chapter, taking the story in a completely new direction and with more length. Some stuff at the beginning has stayed, but most of it is new. I advise you to reread if you caught the first draft. (Anyone who can name the most changes gets a long drabble request!)

Even the title (previously _Never Simple_) had changed. I hope all the people who already it can forgive me. _Grin _ It's actually a lot more adult than before, so please heed the rating. This first chapter has limey bits.

Again, this is a potential sequel to my one-shot, _Right Before His Eyes_.

Warning: Spoilers for Naruto and Naruto II.

Note: All chapter titles are bits of lyrics from Elton John and Tim Rice's _Aida_.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fanfiction.

**Daring to Bleed**

By Nessie

Chapter One: Now Another Land

Her eyes hurt because the sky was so blue. She could only remember seeing robin's eggs quite that blue, but the dark of the nest they rested in always toned them down. But there was no combination of twigs, cobwebs, and dry leaves to tone down the sky; it had only a sun that glared down on her, burning with its fury.

Not to mention that she hadn't seen a single robin the whole time she'd been staying in the Land of Wind. That was to be expected, of course. She couldn't blame the robins for rejecting the dry, hot region that held almost nothing but rocks and sand and a few, scattered oases that had to be journeyed to monthly in order to refill the village's water supply. Birds weren't meant for so rugged an area; the few winged creatures she saw daily were large mean-looking scavengers that feasted on carrion and took shelter on the roofs and in the rafters of the open-air pavilions in the Hidden Village of Sand.

Tenten paused in her task of hammering what would be a katana and looked up with a noiseless gasp. She wasn't really seeing what was in front of her (although it happened to be the offices of the Kazekage across the street), and her mouth had dropped open.

Oh _no_, she had begun to miss the birds.

It had been three years since the day she had arrived in Suna to work for Gaara of the Desert, former enemy of her hometown and current Kazekage. The young leader had been working more than usual lately, finishing the paperwork on the completion of the two new citizen villages that had been erected in the last few years so that they could begin production on a third. It had been commented that the construction would never have been finished with so quickly had not volunteers from other countries come to help. Tenten heard these offhand remarks on the street and in the market from time to time and was instantly filled with reassurance.

She had made the right decision, coming here. There were dozens of houses and apartments that had been built. Families that had before lived in streets now had homes to raise their children in. The economy was starting to flourish, despite the country's shortage of fertile soil; metalworking and glass created from sand had proven to make quite the profit for the desert dwellers. Even the ninja village Tenten was currently living in had begun to receive more mission requests, and the Sand was thriving from the income as it never had before.

Tenten found satisfaction in knowing that she had helped to make such a reality. This land did not have enriched roots buried deep like Konoha. There was no such closeness, and it was not blessed with the same fertility and sense of trust. If anything, the country was known for its history of survival. But now they did more than just survive; they really _lived_, too. It showed each day in the eyes of the people.

So she had no regrets. But she did indulge in the occasional longing for emerald grass and chromium waterfalls, for companionship like she had known in her Academy days, for the sense of belonging that had come from being in a team.

Her team.

The summer day was nothing but blistering heat and trembling air, much like most days in the Sand, but the dark-colored robes Tenten wore protected her from both sun and soaring temperatures. The small metal shop she ran was thankfully air-conditioned, and she sold all of her wares inside of it. However, she did the actual forging and grinding outside in front of the shop and was shaded by the overhead terrace that had come with her apartment above the shop. She loved the place, both to work and to live in. Gaara had commissioned it for her within the first month of her arrival. Tenten had at first pleaded that she didn't need such extravagant property, that she could perform her craft just as easily with one half the size. But Gaara had not allowed her to settle for anything less and so for three years she had lived in comfort she had never known or needed. She had used the shop to her advantage, though, to train others in the art of weapons-making. And although the day had been hot and long, she was proud of the hard hours. In a few minutes, it would be closing time and she would leave her metal fires to cool in favor of more relaxed time.

She had been summoned by the Kazekage.

Well, "summoned" was hardly the right word. And neither was name of the person. She was meeting him at a restaurant that had just opened for a late dinner. It was eight o' clock now, and it was rare for Gaara the Kazekage to finish with work any earlier than eight-thirty. But she had received a letter from his office after returning from her morning training with Temari, and Gaara the man had wished to see her tonight.

By the time Tenten had finished hanging up tools and putting away current projects, she had only a little over a half-hour to get ready and meet with Gaara at nine. Racing through the shop – past shelves of shuriken and boxes of senbon – she bounded up the stairs and practically threw herself into a lukewarm shower (it was too hot in this area to put on full heat). Twenty minutes later, she was dressed and retying up her hair in the customary twin buns. Considering who she was to be dining with, she wore a more formal set of robes in dark purple with a few sparkling rhinestones along the neckline that slanted from her left shoulder to underneath her right shoulder. She opted for plain black sandals with a short heel. After only a moment of debate, she lightly dusted her face with a thin coat of makeup and added a touch of glinting crystal earrings that had been a birthday present from Yamanaka Ino years earlier.

He hadn't seen this set of robes yet. He'd seen the green ones and the blue ones, and he had once said something about wondering how she would look in red, but purple was the pick of the evening. She had yet to find any robes dyed pink. It was still odd, even after performing this exact process several times now. Certainly she had never gotten this dressed up for Konoha's Hokage. She usually told herself that because she was not originally from Suna, and she wanted to set an example of respect for the other non-native volunteers.

In the end, she had to admit that she went this out of her way because she had, for the last three months, been discreetly dating Gaara of the Desert.

With a small that usually came on whenever she was surprised all over again with the power of attraction, Tenten quickly and methodically slipped a certain number of shuriken and kunai into her sleeves (adding a couple extra senbon into the strands of her dark hair) and left the house.

It was a short walk to the restaurant which, despite the obviously impressive budget used to build it, was small and intimate. Only civilians with a larger-than-average paycheck would be able to dine here, and as Tenten entered, she felt eyes arrow toward her immediately. This was one thing about being involved with Gaara she could never get accustomed to. Though for the most part their relationship had gone unnoticed, the upper classes of Suna who tended to be in the same circles of the Kazekage and his siblings heard and saw a lot more than any regular working-class villagers.

There was a ripple of anxiety flowing through the visible staff, confirming that Gaara had already arrived. Tenten wasn't surprised. They had met like this before, and each time he was waiting for her instead of it being the other way around. He never allowed anyone the chance to beat him to the punch in anything.

Heads craned toward the back of the restaurant told her where he was, and she walked confidently past the smattering of staring patrons to join him. He sat in the corner booth by the window, facing the door and her. She took in his state of dress, seeing he had on the plain black robes he wore daily. She guessed he had come straight from his office, and noticed with interest how the sunset outside gave his auburn hair a golden tint. He was without his Gourd at present, and Tenten figured he had checked it. She smiled, picturing a befuddled maitre d taking the heavy, sand-filled gourd from his village leader.

His eyes she looked at last only to find them already on her. She was grateful for the room's dim lighting when a deep flush bloomed over her cheeks. To keep up appearances, she bowed low before him. "Good evening, Kazekage-sama." She could feel the tension in her throat as she spoke.

Undoubtedly as conscious as she of their handful of spectators, Gaara said nothing. He simply raised a hand and motioned for her to sit down. At twenty-two, he looked much more the commanding figure than he had at fifteen. Tenten remembered one of the few times she had seen him relaxed and off-guard; when he'd been dead. They didn't discuss that time, of course, beyond the fact that Gaara knew she had been there. He had opened up in the eight years that had gone by – especially to his siblings and, with time, to her – but for the most part he was still an intimidating, taciturn man.

_As he should be_, she mentally added. The Sand expected control, and Gaara was just the type to demand and instill it. But she was still amazed that she had found it so easy to become friends with such an abrasive person. Not only that, but they had managed to win affection out of each either, even if the challenge tended to feel like an ongoing game of tug-of-war.

A small smile crossed her faced as she slid into the booth bench opposite him. In that aspect, getting to know Gaara wasn't too different from once being teammates with…

The stray thought flew from her mind as her knee brushed his for just an instant below the table before her ankles crossed and she settled. She had a strong desire to fuss with the skirt of her robes and nearly chuckled to herself. There was no reason for her to still be so nervous around Gaara.

Determined to gain control of herself, she cleared her throat. "How are our options?"

Gaara watched her flip open the menu with his distinctive cerulean eyes, made brighter by the dark liner that surrounded them. "Suited to your tastes," he answered bluntly. "Pasta from the Land of Fire."

"Mmm." Her gave skimmed hungrily over the various noodle dishes. Were she to look up, she would have noticed a similar hunger starting to make itself known on Gaara's normally-expressionless features. "It's almost too hot for ramen," she murmured.

"Wine?" he offered. Tenten nodded, and he motioned to a younger server with trembling hands. He was a kid, their junior by only a few years, and he was apparently eager to impress his Kazekage. Tenten knew that Gaara wasn't one to be either pleased or displeased by dining service and kept herself alert to the boy's movements just in case he ended up dropping the wine and she needed to save the establishment from paying for another expensive bottle.

The server didn't let it fall, however, and only managed to spill a few red drops on the pristine white tablecloth while pouring her glass. She shot him a sympathetic smile before ordering a cool salad and half-portion of ramen. Gaara had no salad and a full bowl, curiously reminding Tenten of Uzumaki Naruto. Gaara seemed to loosen up a bit when the menus were taken away and there were no longer any obstacles between them.

His tone was soft as he commented. "You're hungry tonight."

"Your sister didn't go easy on me in training this morning. I spent half the day replenishing by shuriken supply because she bent them all." She saw the corner of his mouth twitch and knew he was amused. Tenten detected Gaara's sense of humor the same way Sakura once said she'd detected Uchiha Sasuke's: with attention to detail.

Tenten was at once surprised with herself, though the kunoichi that she was did not allow her to express it. She was certainly thinking a lot about Konoha and the people she had known there today.

"What about you?" she returned in as much of an attempt to distract herself as to get him to talk to her. "Is office work going well?"

He shrugged one shoulder. "It's hard for signing papers to go badly."

Feeling small in the face of his unwavering stare, Tenten looked to her left to see out the window. She watched as villagers were returning home to their spouses, parents, siblings, pets… Not much different from Konoha. She hadn't thought so yesterday.

Brown eyes whipped back to blue-green ones when Gaara gently laid a hand on hers. "Gaara-san?" she murmured in surprise. Despite their relationship status, Tenten hadn't yet been able to stop using honorifics for his name. It had taken him nearly three weeks to convince her to at least drop the _–sama_.

Gaara did not speak with words. Instead, he studied the pale crystal earrings that dangled near her neck and flashed in the lamplight. Around them, she could hear the whispers increasing.

"People are watching you," she told him. Her voice somehow stayed soft and became urgent at the same time. Tenten's fingers, steadily growing warmer, flexed beneath his cooler ones.

"No," differed the desert shinobi. "They're all watching _us_."

Tenten's mouth opened, but she had no words. The server saved her by bringing their food. She made a mental note to tip him well as Gaara drew his hand away.

The conversation, though sparse because of Gaara's quiet nature, remained light throughout dinner. Tenten did most of the talking, telling him about certain types of weapons she was trying to improve creatively and how she would be training solo for the next couple of weeks when Temari left the next day to fulfill her biannual ambassador duties in Konoha. By the time they had finished eating, Gaara had promised to book two and a half hours for only her each morning at the training grounds.

He rose to pay the check, and Tenten stood up with him out of respect. In the light of the large, overhead chandelier, the rhinestones on her robes threw little spots of multi-colored shines over her neck and face and hair. Gaara actually stopped in signing the bill to flick his eyes toward her. It lasted only a moment, and then he finished and walked around the table.

"I'll walk you home," he said, and the tone left no room for the protest she had tried to give him on their first date. She had found out the hard way how stubborn Gaara could be. Tenten only murmured a word of thanks and followed him to the exit, making sure he remembered to pick up the huge sand Gourd on their way out.

---

Night had fallen, and stars peeked out of blue-gray clouds to spy on the pair as they walked down the street back toward Tenten's apartment. It wasn't the first time she had experienced such privacy with Gaara before, but whenever she was alone with him, she always managed to feel somehow inferior. It had nothing to do with warrior talent; they had never let their ninja status affect their relationship, especially since neither of them had seen much beyond the inside of an office or a shop ever since the two villages had been completed.

When they were near enough to her shop for her to begin reaching for the key in her sleeve, his voice carried on the wind over to her ears. "Don't you fear me, Tenten?"

Her hand froze inside her robes. Looking over her shoulder at where Gaara had stopped walking in order to keep a safe distance, she hurried to decide how to reply to the question. She wasn't surprised that he had asked such a thing; she'd honestly been expecting it since the first time he had kissed her…so unsurely, so carefully as though by holding her too tightly he would shatter her. So Gaara never held her very long. The dilemma was whether to answer with cheerfulness or solemnity.

Cheerfulness won out and Tenten gave him a smile bright enough to pierce the night's darkness and the cloud always trying to blacken Gaara's heart. "Gaara-san, you're too good to scare me." Sliding her key into the lock and turning, she opened the door—

—and was pushed inside without warning. Just as quickly, the door was slammed shut at her back to kill any available light, and she felt hands gripping her upper arms to press her firmly against the smooth wood of the door. Her head hit the panel but not hard enough to hurt her. Without even a second to get her bearings, Tenten's breath was robbed by another mouth sealed unexpectedly to hers. Some part of her registered that it was Gaara who was kissing her, but even more parts insisted that this was different. Gaara had never been so fast before, so…_needy_. As her eyes closed and her hands moved up muscled, cloth-covered chest so her arms could wrap around his neck. He was shaking loose some hidden inches of her, inches she'd tried to keep locked up for three years. Surprise mixed with want and had her groping at any loose part of his robes.

His swift fingers had already undone the top few buttons at the back of her robes. A deep sound tore from his throat and he ripped his lips away from hers to press them to her jaw, her neck, the shoulder left bare by her robes. He then moved back to heft her up with a strong arm at the backs of her thighs. The Gourd prevented Tenten from getting good purchase on his back, so she clung to his shoulders while lifted her from the floor and carried her up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

He half-burst into her bedroom and let her drop to the floor so he could unbuckle the straps of his Gourd. The big shell fell with a dull thump to the carpet. By the time he had stripped off the shirt of his robes to reveal suntanned skin, Tenten had already reclined on the spacious bed that had come with the apartment. It was the first time she had ever waited on him.

Gaara was on her in seconds, lowering his lips to hers at a slower speed this time but with twice as much passion. Tenten swore she could taste blackberries, kissing him. Maybe it was just the wine from earlier or maybe she couldn't make sense of the world anymore because it was spinning, spinning, spinning…

He moved up the bed toward the pillows, taking her with him. Her hair was threatening to fall down, and she felt the rumble of his soft laugh when he found the senbon tucked within it. Tenten rolled with him until she was balancing over him, able to see the way his eyes glinted with lust like cut sapphire. One of his hands slid up the mattress, underneath the pillow she usually slept on, and then he went still. Tenten paused as well, wondering what had stilled him.

Gaara pulled out from beneath the pillow an object that gleamed and flashed in the moonlight that seeped in from the window. Tenten's eyes widened when she saw what it was; the first kunai she had made upon coming to stay in Suna, superfluously ornate with a tasseled handle, and there as a ready weapon in case someone were to sneak into her room while she was sleeping.

And Gaara was holding it by the blade she had sharpened just last week.

"Careful! I'm so sorry," she began babbling, moving off of him. "I should have moved it. Did you cut yourself when you…" Tenten trailed off when, even with the poor lighting, she saw the several hundreds of miniscule sand grains that worked as a thin yet strong barrier between Gaara's flesh and the blade. There wasn't so much as a drop of blood on Gaara's hand. And, now that she thought about it, he didn't sport a single scar anywhere on his naked chest, something that should not be possible for a shinobi as high-caliber as he.

Inexplicably affected, Tenten scooted to the side of the bed to assure some distance between her and Suna's Kazekage. Reaching out, she flipped on a lamp and sighed. "I'm sorry, Gaara-san."

She felt him shift on the mattress and looked back to see his bitter grimace. "It's my fault," he replied steadily. "I had no intention of entering your home tonight. I just…you said that to me, and I…acted."

"_You're too good to scare me." _She had said that. _"You're too good…"_

How long had Gaara been waiting for words like that? Tenten felt a pain in her chest and looked away from him. "I'm sorry," she repeated, pushing stray hair away from her eyes. Even if the words were useless to him, she meant them. All he had been through…it made her wish she could help him.

But not this way. Not with lust and physical drive. Gaara had been taught with forceful action his whole life. Tenten suspected that what he really needed was time, understanding, and most of all, gentleness.

It was an unspoken agreement that he would leave in a minute, so she stood up to take the kunai from him after he'd donned his shirt again. He passed it to her, hand touching hers a bit longer than necessary, and after a few awkward moments, he lifted his eyes to hers.

"I've been keeping something from you. Something I should have told you when I first found out a week ago." Gaara rushed on with his message, seeming to want it over with. "I received word from Konoha concerning the commencement of the third village's construction."

Tenten blinked. "Konoha?"

He nodded. "Hokage Tsunade informed me that your village's special unit, ANBU, found out that another nation is planning to infiltrate the Land of Wind while Suna is busy overseeing the construction and take advantage of it somehow. The informant is said to be the best. And Tsunade is sending new arrivals from your hometown here to assist us."

She smiled unconsciously. The only person from Konoha that she had seen in the three years she'd been here was Nara Shikamaru, who was apparently a village representative in addition to being a teacher at the Academy. He had, like Tenten, achieved Jounin status and came annually to the Sand in order to compare notes with Temari.

"I'm sorry," he went on in low tones, "for not telling you sooner. I…" Gaara either retreated or was speechless, both possibilities equally likely and unlikely.

"It's fine," Tenten told him honestly. "I don't blame you for wanting me undistracted. The shop and the trainees needed me this week." Even as she spoke, she wished he would come out and tell her who was coming. "Are they shinobi?"

He nodded once, a swift confirmation. "I'm told you know them well. Apparently Temari tried recruiting them before, but they didn't get clearance to leave Konoha." She thought of Ino and Sakura off the bat. She had worked with them in a trial team in the weeks before leaving Konoha. Ino had been especially disappointed in her rejection. As for Sakura, Tsunade-sama simply could not spare her apprentice for that long. Temari had been annoyed with Tsunade for weeks.

Impatience rearing its head, Tenten gave Gaara an anxious look. "Who are they, Gaara?" She realized a moment too late that she had forgotten her honorific, but it seemed Gaara appreciated the lack.

Gaara blinked, and then did something Tenten had never seen him do before. He reached up and ran a hand through his hair, a nervous action. Then again, he had done a lot of things tonight that she had never seen him do before.

"Rock Lee—" Joy speared through her, and she gasped, but Gaara plowed on before she could make any sort of happy exclamation. "—and Hyuuga Neji."

She missed the sharpness in his voice as he said the second name because Tenten had suddenly frozen. Her brown eyes widened, barely seeing, as she stared into the Kazekage's aquamarine ones.

"Neji," she whispered to herself. The kunai slipped from her hand and landed with a clatter on the hardwood floor. In the next moment, she recovered and was able to find her voice. "And Lee. When…when do they arrive?"

Gaara's gaze sharpened a little. If she had been able to focus any better, Tenten might have noticed the scrutiny with which he regarded her. "Tomorrow afternoon."

Tenten's jaw dropped, and she stared at him in something close to shock. "Tomorrow!"

It was the closest thing to panic Gaara had ever seen her exude, and he immediately took her subconscious hint for him to go. Tenten watched as he took up his Gourd and moved toward the door. "I'll see myself out," he murmured quietly when she began to follow him.

"Gaara-san." Her gaze went from the bed to the window to his hard face. "I didn't mean to—"

He cut her off by softly pressing his lips to hers. Even after what had transpired between them, Tenten didn't feel anything as passionate as she had fifteen minutes ago.

"Goodnight," she whispered right before he turned to descend the stairs. It wasn't until she heard the door close behind him that she stepped back and flounced down on her bed, bouncing lightly. On the bedside table that held her gently glowing lamp rested the detailed kunai that had ended her unplanned evening with Gaara.

And began an even more unexpected reunion with, of all people, Hyuuga Neji.

Her stomach twisted. Tenten actually felt sick as images from three years ago flashed tauntingly through her mind. She was looking forward to seeing Lee. She was even, on some level, looking forward to seeing Neji.

But mainly Tenten wanted to just crawl into bed and stay until her past came and went, passing her by. It had gone this far without her, why couldn't it just continue on?

_Gaara_, she thought, but the name that was formed by her lips wasn't that one.

"Neji."

_To Be Continued…_


	2. Planned Or Happenstance

**A/N**: Chapter two, yaaaaay! Now that didn't take so long, did it? Another WARNING: If you have not read chapter one of this fic since 8-15-06, you should go back and _reread _it. It was completely revamped and rewritten and the story is completely different now (including the title). Sorry for the inconvenience.

Another thing: I have begun a collaboration fic collection with the infamous Goldberry! It is called "The Calendar Suite" and can be found under the pen name 'Goldberry and NessieGG.' There is also a link to it in my profile. Now enjoy the fic!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan story.

**Daring To Bleed**

By Nessie

Chapter Two: Planned or Happenstance

"So what happened?"

In Suna, the morning so often felt even hotter than high noon in the summer. All the non-natives that had come to the village to volunteer their services had complained of the possibility of their blood boiling in their veins at this time. And since the morning was the time that Tenten and Temari used for their daily sparring sessions, Tenten found herself wanting to run off and throw herself into a cool stream like she might have done in Konoha. Since the Land of Wind was not blessed with so many bodies of water, she had to put up with it like everyone else.

But she couldn't understand why Temari would ask her a question when the former Kazekage's only daughter knew _perfectly_ well how much the Leaf kunoichi suffered at this time of the day. Besides, between the combat skills the women possessed and the concentration it took to defend against one another, the two of them rarely made any effort to talk while exchanging blows.

So Tenten could not fathom why in the world Temari had chosen now to ask her a question. And _why _did it have to be the very question she had been dreading since waking up that day?

And did Temari think it was _absolutely necessary _to accentuate her inquiry with an oblique swipe of her Cutting Whirlwind Technique? Tenten only barely managed to fully block the attack with the fuuma shuriken she had chosen to retaliate against Temari's tessen with.

"What…." Recovering from the attack's aftereffect was like waiting for someone to lift a boulder from her stomach. Tenten took a deep breath and went on, reaching for kunai as she did so. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, come on." A smile crossed Temari's mischievous face as she effortlessly lifted the tessen to prepare another offensive move. "It's _me_, Tenten. You think I don't know about your and Gaara's fancy date last night?"

Relief began to pour into her like the refreshing water she yearned for. "Oh, well—"

"Or that Gaara didn't get home until one in the morning?"

The relief evaporated and went as dry as the sand at their feet. "Temari…" Tenten hunted for words that would be appropriate even as she jumped to the right and threw the handful of kunai. "I hope you don't—"

"So did he score or what? Don't keep me waiting!" the wind-user added jovially as she bodily dodged three kunai and blew away the other two with her tessen before they had a chance to get close. "I'm his sister. I have a right to know."

Tenten hoped as she scrambled to jump away from her vertical Whirlwind that Temari took the blush on her cheek for an exertion-created flush. "Nothing happened," she answered at last, feeling foolish and embarrassed and guilty. Thoughts of the night before came rushing back; how Gaara had left with rigidity visible in his shoulders. "Nothing happened at all."

"Poor Gaara." Tenten winced, but Temari only lowered her giant fan – signaling the end of the session – and continued. "But lucky for me! I bet Kankurou a hefty sum. He was sure Gaara would definitely get in bed with you last night, but I knew better. Oh, don't worry," the eldest Sand siblings hastened to add. "Gaara's hard to hurt these days. No one's upset with you. We're all used to cold showers here."

Somehow, that didn't make Tenten feel any better now that she knew that the time limit on her virginity had just been bet on. Desperate for a change of subject, she muttered, "You leave for Konoha today."

"Yep," Temari replied with a smile as they started to walk back toward the village. "If you want, I'll tell that piggy and that forehead girl you said hello."

Tenten couldn't help but laugh, and she nodded. "Ino and Sakura. Yes, please do."

She had to stop sometimes and reawaken to the fact that Temari of the Desert and she were actually _friends_. Good friends even. But Tenten supposed that time could do a lot of things, and she had spent the last three years in the older girl's country. They had gotten to know each other, and it had been Temari after all who had asked for Tenten's help in the construction project. They had started off as enemies in their first Chuunin exam years ago, a fight Tenten had lost.

It was fitting, then, that was during Tenten's Jounin exam came the realization that she and Temari were no longer enemies or even rivals. And Tenten had _defeated_ Temari for the first time, earning her Jounin status in result of the victory. Although she had been awarded the status in Suna, Tenten had been thankful to learn that the records would transfer to Konoha and she would not have to retake the exam.

She was a Jounin now, and an adult. She knew how to take care of herself and, through various experiences, other people as well. Tenten recalled with fondness the huge, neon green card that Gai-sensei had sent her with more exclamations about her fiery determination and youthful perseverance than even _she _hadn't imagined Gai could think of. The card had been stained with large, long wet stains from her teacher's tears, a thought that still exasperated her.

Temari startled her out of her thoughts by waving a smaller, practical fan carried for normal use in front of Tenten's face. The stirring of dry air put her on alert and she turned to the Suna woman expectantly.

"I heard about your teammates coming in today, too. You must be excited." Teal eyes strongly resembling Gaara's sparkled. Tenten automatically went on the offensive.

"I am," she answered, adding in an attempt to turn the conversation away from herself, "but probably not as happy as you are about seeing Nara Shikamaru." Tenten watched with satisfaction when all trace of color drained from Temari's face – her version of a blush.

Temari's eyes narrowed. "I'm going to fight him this time," she mumbled.

"Uh-huh." Tenten smirked as she reached for her cloak and draped it over herself, welcoming the protection from the heat and sun. "Before or after you sneak into his apartment?"

The older woman sent her a look. "You know, we don't _just _fool around."

Tenten snorted in disbelief. "I'm sure you take care of all the business and have a rousing game or two of Go. Which Shikamaru undoubtedly wins, I'm sure." The village buildings were visible now, and Tenten started to go over what work she could possibly get done before the male parts of Team Gai were scheduled to arrive.

"He wants to marry me, Tenten."

Tenten halted mid-stride, eyes widened and she swiveled to see that Temari had stopped walking a few paces before. She looked ragged from the sparring session, hair coming loose from the twin ponytails and clothes damp and sticking from sweat, but what the Konoha kunoichi noticed most was the dazed, far-off look in Temari's eyes. And the small smile that the Sand woman most likely didn't realize she was showing.

"Oh, Temari," she breathed as the surprise wore off somewhat to be replaced with happiness. At the same time, she couldn't help but think it odd that Shikamaru, younger than her by a year, might be getting engaged. "What did you say?"

"He gave me time to think. But I…I'll be saying yes." When Tenten gasped, she held up a hand, that upon further inspection, was found to be trembling. "My brothers don't know yet. I'll tell them after Shikamaru. You're the first person I've said anything to."

It took two long steps for Tenten to be at her side. She pulled the blond ninja in for a tight hug. "You love him," she murmured. "I always thought you did."

"Yeah, and the sex isn't bad either." She wrinkled her nose Tenten's shocked expression. "I feel weird about it. I've got three years on the bored guy. What if he makes me feel old in a few years?"

Tenten laughed and linked her arm through Temari's, the way she might have done with Sakura or even Hinata back in Konoha. She had a suspicion that Temari wasn't used to having a close female friend to confide in, and she planned to let her know that she had nothing to worry about. She promised that her lips were sealed.

They had to part in the village street so they could both prepare for the day. Tenten called dibs on being the first one to hear details the instant Temari returned and then hurried home with plans to work on finishing a collection of senbon she was creating at Kankurou's request. In the shop, she had just taken out the special alloy for the senbon when she remembered her discussion with Temari.

"_Gaara's hard to hurt these days. No one's upset with you."_

Maybe not, Tenten thought in response to the second statement. But she wasn't half as certain about the truth of the first. Gaara had reacted pretty strongly last night with emotions as untamed as Tenten had ever seen on such a well-trained ninja. If he could let desire overcome him, there was no reason he wouldn't let rejection (for what it was) do the same.

She shot a partly frantic glance at the clock over the desk she kept in the shop. She wanted to apologize for her behavior. It was still early, only about nine in the morning. If she left now, it was possible that she would catch Gaara in one of the breaks his assistants forced him to take each day, and then she could come back and prepare before Lee and Neji arrived.

_Neji._

There was a flash of pure, white eyes that stared at her out of the recesses of her mind, and then it was gone as Tenten remembered Gaara. If she was going to make it happen, she had to go now. Lamenting the loss of a shower, she took her damp hair out of their confining buns. She finger-combed the brown mass of wavy hair as she ran out the door.

---

She really disliked the office building – that was really a mansion – that Gaara worked in. It did not sport the same warm wood that the Hokage mansion had boasted, nor did it have the large, open windows that looked out over the village. Instead, the walls were lined with cold iron that, while keeping the inside temperatures practically moderate, made her feel as though she had just walked into a dungeon. And there were only small windows, and precious few of them, that showed only patches of the sky or rooftops.

Approaching the Kazekage's business chamber, she was greeted by the two guards that flanked the closed door. "Tenten-san," the young man on the right said, a pleasant but alert smile coming to his face. After being in Suna for so long, most of the people close to her generation knew her on a first-name basis. "You look like you've just come from war."

She flicked him an impatient look. "Training. I need to speak with Gaara-sama."

The guard on the left was one of the people she had given lessons in metal-forging to, and he sent her a smile of his own, but this one held an apology. "I'm afraid he's busy. There's a meeting going on right now."

"A meeting?" A small crease hung over her nose as she frowned. "He supposed to be on break right now, right?"

The right guard nodded. "Yeah, but we can't get him to cooperate every time. And anyway, it's not exactly a meeting, it's more like…"

She jumped on the chance. "Then I'll only been a minute." Grinning, she seized the door handle and turned. The door swung open before either guard could stop her.

"Gaara-san, please excuse me. I came to—"

Tenten froze with her hand still clenched around the handle. The determined look that had graced her features a moment before now fell to be replaced with perfect disbelief.

"…a welcoming," finished the right guard just as Tenten completed her own statement.

"…apologize." But all thought had effectively seeped out of her mind that way that water tricked off a leaf after the rain. She stood there, tongue dry and hands dampening, as her eyes took in the people in the room.

One was Gaara, who sat calm and straight behind his expansive desk. His red hair stood out among them all, and his black-rimmed eyes watched her seriously. In front of the desk to the left stood a man dressed in all green but for a grey vest. His distinctive eyebrows were as dark as the bowl of hair on his head, and when his eyes met hers, they were full of first surprise, then tears.

"TENTEN MY FRIEND!"

Yes indeed, Rock Lee was as loud as ever. And it appeared that his unnecessary volume tendency had not prevented him from because a Konoha Jounin. Tenten didn't get the chance to even open her mouth before her swift comrade had taken hold of her waist and started to spin her around and around.

In total ecstasy, Lee shouted, "I'm so thrilled to see you! I knew Gai-sensei was right when he said that you would be even more of the blossoming flower you were the day that you left us! Your youthful energy is still a BEAUTIFUL FLAME!"

"Lee!" Breathless and dizzy, there was no strength for Tenten to hold back her laugh. Her hair cascaded to the small of her back as Lee finally set her on her feet again, but she had to hold onto his shoulders while she regained her equilibrium. "Let me see you!" she demanded, pushing him away a bit to get a better look. She laughed again, louder this time, because in the last few years Lee had apparently stopped growing and looked more than ever like their estranged teacher. His jaw was as hard, his muscles as toned from their terrible workouts, and when he smiled, she was half-blinded by the whiteness of his teeth. "You look fantastic!" she concluded excitedly.

"As do you, my friend! So lovely and mature," said Lee, calming down just enough to cast a glance over her head – he was tall enough now to do so – at his fellow newcomer. "Don't you think so, Neji?"

She turned mostly because Lee's hands on her shoulders forced her to about face. Tenten felt her own skin go cold when her dark eyes landed on the genius known as Hyuuga Neji.

As usual, he did not wear the Jounin vest like most Konoha shinobi and instead sported the traditional Hyuuga branch family clothing. The white gi would serve well here where the angry sun was enough to singe the skin in minutes. He still had a traveling pack on his back (Lee has discarded his on the floor when he'd run at Tenten) and the Konoha hitai-ate securely covered the curse seal that lay hidden beneath on his forehead. The night-black hair that all the Hyuugas were graced with fell smooth and straight down his back and was a couple of inches longer than he usually kept it. Tenten estimated that it would be time soon for a trim.

All of this she noted in seconds and then met his eyes, which were already on her. Pale as pearls and nearly as cool, they punched memories into her, speeding her pulse.

_Neji grabbed her wrist and turned, pulling her to him in one, swift motion. And they were together, instantly, chest for chest. Just as quickly, she was against the wall, trapped between plaster and his body. Neji dropped his forehead to hers and made sure she was looking_.

When the Hyuuga prodigy spoke, the sound was like pebbles dropping to the sand. Dry and hard. "Mature," he answered Lee's question, "yes."

A familiar blaze of temper flared but didn't burn. _Some greeting_, she thought indignantly. It was true that she certainly hadn't expected a hug and a reunion party out of Neji, but she had imagined he would at least give her something. Even one of those little smug smirks that had so infuriated her in the past. But no; her old teammate regarded her now as distantly he might have looked upon a family servant back home.

"Hello, Neji." Tenten thought she sounded timid although she didn't, and she fought to put confidence in her tone. "You're here early."

She cast a look at Gaara, who had been silently watching the whole of the exchange from behind his desk. He met her eyes with a patient expression and spoke in his even, checked tones. "Team Gai had information on the nation with supposed plans to invade this country and thought it best to deliver it to me as soon as possible." He tapped a long finger on a slim black folder that was lying still closed on his desk.

"I…see."

Behind her, Lee tapped her shoulder. "Neji's been really strict and serious ever since he was admitted into the ranks of ANBU last year," he informed. His face – still sillier-looking even than Gai's – contorted into a crazy expression of what must have been Lee's impression of Neji.

Tenten would have laughed if the news hadn't so surprised her. Turning around, she looked at Neji with something new in her eyes. "You're an ANBU ninja now?" That actually explained a _lot_, she reasoned as an afterthought.

Neji said nothing but kept staring into her the way that only he had ever been able to. He had never needed his Byakugan or any other doujutsu to make Tenten feel as though she were being seen completely.

"Was there something you needed?" asked Gaara, looking at her pointedly.

Tenten's mind was still fuzzy from the unexpected turn of events, and she blinked at him a couple of times before remembering. "Oh!" Registering how their company was not the kind she could speak privately to Gaara in front of, she simply gave a nervous smile. "No. I mean…I'll save it for later."

Gaara didn't react for a moment and only stared the way Neji had. She wished for a second that she knew more men who were able to instantly act on their feelings, but then…most of the men she knew were excellent, introverted shinobi. At last Gaara nodded, the corners of his mouth loosening in his way of smiling.

"Very well. I'm going to need to look over this file." He stood up and, playing the part of the Kazekage, looked to both of the Konoha men that had come to see him. "I am very thankful to you. Rock Lee," he murmured. In return, Lee sent him a nice guy pose. Tenten nearly choked. Watching them, one would never think that they had fought. But it was true that no one would forget how Gaara's past actions had very nearly cost Lee his chances of being a ninja.

Gaara's aquamarine eyes turned with odd slowness to the other, almost as though he didn't wish to look upon him. "And Hyuuga Neji." Here his eyes narrowed just slightly, and Tenten didn't need to be looking at Neji to know that his did the same.

"Don't hesitate to ask if you need anything during your stay in the Hidden Village of Sand." With this dismissive remark, Gaara's gaze landed once more on Tenten. She felt her blood pressure rise for just a moment. The exchange was brief but not unseen.

And those eyes saw most but not all.

"Let me get ready," Tenten told Lee once they were outside, "and then I'll come show you around."

Lee grinned. "Neji and I have already agreed to unpack today." He raised a hand to whisper to her conspiratorially behind it. "And by 'agreed,' I mean 'he is making me.' Gaara-san is supplying us with an apartment to share. But by this evening we should be ready to spend time with you."

"That's fine." Out of habit, Tenten turned to look at Neji, attempting to include him in the conversation. "I have some work to do today anyway."

Neji nodded once and said lightly, "Seven then?"

"Seven," she replied in quick agreement, feeling a little better now that he had spoken directly to her. "I'm sorry I look like this," she added. "I just finished training with Temari not too long ago and—"

"You are a radiant star!" exclaimed Lee, bringing a smile to her face more from his silliness than from his words. "Not even battle can disturb your beauty."

She took a step back. "I'll see you both later then." Turning to walk across the street and start working, she only made it a couple of yards before she looked back over her shoulder. "And guys?"

The two men looked at her, and Tenten felt uncomfortably emotional. She had known them for close to eleven years now, and it was so odd to think that they were no longer the boys, the children, that they had been. And neither was she.

Her smile spread and rivaled the brightness of the sun. "I'm really happy you're here."

As she continued on her way, the two male students of Gai watched her disappear into her shop. They stood there without moving for a couple of minutes, as they had done together many times, and let the village and the world move around them. It was naturally Lee who spoke first.

"What do you think, Neji? You said you'd tell me once you saw her."

The Hyuuga did not take his colorless eyes from the spot Tenten had last stood in. "It's been three years without one word or look from her. I became an ANBU captain and I became stronger. Otherwise I've not changed much." His dark brows lowered a fraction. "Tenten, too, has gotten stronger than she was. But she…" Unnoticed by Neji, he cast an emotionless glance up toward the office of the Kazekage overhead.

"Tenten _has _changed."

_To Be Continued…_


	3. Winds of Liberty

**A/N: **Hi, all! Sorry for such a wait, but I did manage to get this chapter up a lot sooner than I originally expected. Time's hard to find now that I'm back in school, but don't worry, I shall do my very best! Please keep reading and don't give up on me!

For those who were wondering, this chapter lets in a little bit on what went on with Neji in Konoha while Tenten was in Suna.

**Edit**: Apparently I confused Hizashi and Hiashi. Sorry! I'm notoriously bad with names so thank you for the couple of people who pointed it out to me. It's fixed now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Daring To Bleed**

By Nessie

Chapter Three: Winds of Liberty

By the time Tenten had done all the work she thought she would manage for that day, it was five-thirty, and she had less than two hours before she was to meet up with Lee and Neji. And she still hadn't gotten around to speaking with Gaara. She took the fastest shower of her life and dressed just as hurriedly. Her hair she piled high in one bun on top of her head rather than two – Temari had claimed it made her look cute. Tenten just knew it was a quick way to style wet hair.

She was in the Kazekage's office building within twenty minutes and was running up the long, winding staircase that led to Gaara's personal office. The feel of cold stone as she occasionally touched her fingers to the wall only made her begin to feel nervous rather than comfortable.

Ten steps below the upper landing, Tenten halted. Beside her, a lantern flickered and cast shadows over her face, which had drawn in with a fait line between her eyes. What was she really going to say to him anyway? Sorry, Gaara, I didn't mean to turn you on and then ditch you?

"Stupid." Tenten lightly hit her forehead against one of the big stones in the wall to her right. "You're stupid," she murmured again to herself right before swiveling and starting down again. There was nothing she could really say to him that would make up for how—

"Tenten."

She froze. _Oh, this totally **would** happen, too_, she thought with a lip curling slightly in self-detestation. Lee comes to town and brings the traditional Maito Gai drama with him!

Plastering a forced smile on her face, she slowly turned around to see Gaara standing at the head of the stairs with that shift's two guards slightly behind him. "Gaara-san," she began. "I thought you'd still be—"

Gaara flung out his hand and motioned to the guards. "Leave us," he commanded. Instantly the two subordinate ninja continued forward and descended the stairs. Tenten felt rooted to the place she stood in while they passed her. From above, Gaara's sea-and-sky eyes regarded her in a way that almost seemed relaxed. He didn't seem upset with her, and Tenten was grateful for that.

"Gaara," she started over, "I didn't mean…"

_He fumbled, seeking the right words and coming up empty. "I didn't mean to be here."_

"_What kind of thing is that for Hyuuga Neji to say?" _

"You wanted to speak to me, correct?" Gaara came down a step although it did nothing to lessen the way he towered over her. Tenten had to fight not to take a step back. It might have been the shadows in the stairwell, which darkened his eyes and made them hard to see, but he seemed almost a little _too _attentive. "That's why you came here this morning."

Tenten swallowed but nodded. "Yes. But then I—I realized that it wasn't important after all."

"But the words are yours. And you didn't say it in front of your very teammates." Gaara's mouth tightened so minutely that the movement was almost imperceptible, but the weapons mistress caught it. "And you think it unimportant?"

"I just—"

"If it's about last night," he interrupted, "I assumed you would realize that I would not hold any contempt for you."

She colored a little but held her ground. "I still feel as though I owe you an apology. I just…don't know how to word it," she confessed.

"I expected your teammates' arrival after three years of not seeing them even once would throw you off. But I imagined you would be fully capable of handling it well enough." Gaara came to the step just above the one she was planted on. "And yet," he murmured as he brought a hand up to light trace the edge of her quarter-length sleeve, "why do I feel that if I kiss you right now, it will be like kissing cold rock?"

Hearing him say such a thing killed any chance of her becoming indignant, and Tenten was only surprised when he ducked his red head and captured her lips anyway. It lasted only a moment, but it gave her time to feel the unexpected coolness of his mouth and the scent of his skin. In turn, he felt his fingers lightly trace over the skin at the curve where her wrist became her hand. But then he pulled away before she could either stiffen or respond. Did Gaara even want to know how she would react?

At any rate, it was true that there was no flame licking at her insides the way the lantern light licked the wall.

Gaara watched her for several admittedly tense seconds. His eyes did not wander, and he seemed to be waiting for something. It apparently didn't happen, and at last he withdrew without actually moving.

"I won't keep you from Lee-san and the Hyuuga." Gaara started to brush by her while she was still stupefied by the unattached way he referred to Neji. "But remember. Temari left today, Tenten. Which means that your outlet for all those feelings you prefer to harbor inside won't be around for a time. You'll have to find another way of releasing them."

He walked down, boasting patience and quiet and authority in the air he left her puzzling in.

It took nearly a full minute after he'd gone for Tenten to react. And when she did, it was with a narrowing of eyes and an annoyed fist against the wall.

What in the hell did those siblings tell each other?

---

"Honestly, Neji." Rock Lee grinned with flashing teeth at his companion who stood in front of the bathroom mirror with a bottle in his hand. "You've been here for three hours, and you've mostly been inside. I'm forced to wonder if the Hyuuga family weakness is their fair skin."

He didn't turn around, but Neji's pale glare flicked to the other man's wide eyes in the mirror. "I am sunburned. It isn't anything out of the ordinary."

"You got burned," challenged Lee, "on your _neck_, beneath your chin, where most people don't even tan!"

There was far too much amusement in the younger Green Beast's voice for Neji's liking, so he capped the bottle of cooling lotion and tossed it with unnecessary force over his shoulder at Lee's head. The bowl-haired one caught it in his hand with an impressive reflex that Neji had seen a million times before. "Have you finished cleaning up?"

"Of course!" Lee answered as though he were a young child trying to convince a parent that he had, indeed, finished tidying under his bed.

Neji reentered the bedroom of their small apartment and noted with increasing aggravation that Lee's side of the room was still littered with various versions of the same emerald spandex uniform. Leg weights were piled at the foot of the bed, and chopstick-patterned boxers were hanging out of the drawer that Gai's protégé had attempted to fold them in. He felt inclined to take it all and throw it unceremoniously out the window, no matter how much Lee would whine.

With only a soft, long-suffering sigh, Neji turned to his unpacked, completely cleared space and sat down on the twin bed provided for him. He could feel Lee's eyes on his without even bothering to sense him.

"You weren't very nice to her this morning, and you're the one sighing, Neji?" Lee gave the Hyuuga a baleful look. "While I've no doubt our dear Tenten can welcome us properly with or without your enthusiasm, you could at _least_ show her some cooperation. Godaime-sama chose us for this mission because she knows that Tenten will work with us excellently. If we're to catch these people who wish to prevent the Wind's prosperity, we must work as Gai-sensei taught us – together. That means," added Lee with a wagging finger, "you are to treat Tenten with respect!"

He was defensive and frowned. "I've treated her—"

"Not good enough. It's been three years. So what?" Lee watched as Neji turned his head to stare scorch marks into the plain wall behind his bed's headboard. "We got older. Tenten came here and assisted in the remarkable success of this country. It is something to be proud of, not disdain her, for!"

"I don't—"

"_And_!" the extroverted shinobi barreled on. "You became a member of ANBU. I seem to remember that you were only able to because _someone _influenced the thought processes of a certain cousin of yours. Even though she's been inaugurated as the clan head now, Hinata-san would never have been able to gain the exuberant youth to allow you to live away from the family with her un-youthful father looking over her shoulder…if it wasn't for Tenten's encouragement toward her just before she left Konoha."

Neji shifted but did not attempt to reply this time.

"She doesn't know I told you about that. You mustn't tell her, of course!" exclaimed Lee with overdramatic urgency. "She will pin me with one of her disapproving looks and I do not believe I could take it after three years of missing her illustrious, joyous face!"

The thick fall of Neji's dark hair rippled as he gave an arrogant toss of his head while, in contrast, tears pooled in the taijutsu's user's eyes. "I'm not going to say anything," Neji told him. Lee's impending sniffles disappeared as though they had never been planned. "And she wouldn't get angry with you anyway. Tenten's changed, but probably not that much." Correction: He _hoped _not that much.

A moment passed. "She hurt me this morning," Lee admitted. "She seemed so surprised to see us, even though we were only a few hours early. Do you think she was not expecting us at all?"

"No," answered the Byakugan master steadily. One of his hands, resting light on the bed's coverlet, balled into a fist. "Kazekage Gaara knew we were coming eight days before now. He would have told her." His mouth tightened even further. "At least, he _should _have."

Lee's unique eyebrows arched. He had most definitely seen the look between Gaara and Neji that had sent negative energy into the hot and dry air of the office building that morning. Tenten, he knew, had not let it go unnoticed either. "You don't like him much, do you?"

"I came out and helped save him that time, didn't I?"

Lee swelled with the pride he had always felt for his longtime comrade, even if he was more often than not an exasperating stick in the mud. "You've saved many that you didn't like, Neji. That was not my question."

"You've many questions today." Neji stood up restlessly and looked at his wristwatch. "It's time to meet her. Are you ready?"

Lee grinned broadly and punched a fist through the air. "We get to really spend time with Tenten!" He seemed to have forgotten that Neji had not actually answered him. But that was not the case; he planned to simply drill the genius again later. "I have been ready for years!"

_Ready_, mused Neji with a deadpan face as Lee led the way out of the apartment and down to the street. That was a word that held more meaning to him that even Rock Lee could comprehend.

---

_One Year Ago._

Ever since the day of the inauguration, Neji had not been at liberty to see Hinata nearly as much as he had in the days of their childhood. It had much to do with him being a needed force for Konoha and he was sent on missions often, which he preferred. He liked to be kept busy. It meant he didn't have to spend as much time living at the family compound.

It also meant that he wouldn't have to spend as much time thinking, and that was also something he preferred.

There came an autumn week in the second year since Neji had watched a teammate of his leave their village to help another one when the Hokage had assigned him no missions. It was rumored that Tsunade believed Neji was tired and needed rest. With her being both his leader and a doctor, Neji could hardly protest. When he was neither training nor meditating, he was spending time alone in his room. He either took his meals there or went out to dine with Lee, who was also on vacation time.

It was during one of the long periods that he remained holed up in his room that he was visited by his authority-holding cousin.

Hinata knocked but did not wait for him and opened the door herself. That was the only thing that drew Neji's attention; annoyed, his face shot up to reprimand the rude intruder but upon meeting the identical gaze of the Hyuuga clan leader his mind was wiped blank.

She stood there in a grand kimono undoubtedly tailored specifically for her. Having grown tall, she seemed like a pillar of silk that fell in soft red and orange hues from her shoulders to her toes. Her hands she held primly in front of her, as she had been taught, but her habit of anxiously twisting her fingers had not been broken. Her index fingers, nobly calloused from holding hundreds of kunai, ceaseless circled each other.

Yet the real grace was set in her face. Framed by strands of ebony hair that she wore long as her mother had, her eyes watched him closely. Only the faintest line on her forehead marred the otherwise flawless skin while, below her father's straight nose, a serious, unpainted mouth frowned at him.

At some point in the last few years, Hyuuga Hinata had become the clan leader that she had been born to be.

Neji got up from his bed where he had previously been reading and bowed low to the woman that had come to him. "Hinata-sama."

However, despite all of the changes time had given to her form…her voice, when she spoke, was still made of the same sweet tones she had possessed as a girl. "Please do not bow to me, Neji nii-san, if we are alone. It has been some time since we have visited."

"Yes." Straightening, he could not help but feel as thought Hinata was scrutinizing him. Her words were kind and by now she would have sent him one of her small smiles. Since she had not, he realized that his cousin must obviously be troubled. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"Please come sit with me." She turned, knowing he would follow, but glanced back over her shoulder. "If I am not troubling you too much?"

_There_ was Hinata, he thought as he walked out onto the surrounding porch where he sat cross-legged. That shy timbre to her voice was all he needed to feel reassured. "Of course not."

"You're very nice, Neji nii-sama." She sounded relieved and once she had lowered herself to the proper sitting posture beside him, Hinata glanced out of the corner of her eye to see him. "My father will disapprove of my coming to this part of the house rather than summoning you."

"Hiashi-sama would—" Neji stopped, remembering that speaking badly of the last clan leader to the current one was in the worst taste. But Hinata surprised him by finishing his statement for him.

"Be very strict about such things. He still prefers his company to bow all the way to the floor." The corners of her mouth turned up sadly. "He will be a main house member all his life, whether or not I am trying to abolish the family separation."

Neji did not know how to reply to that. Hinata had broken many Hyuuga laws already just by taking total leadership on her own rather than waiting until she was married. Hiashi had been convinced that none of the potential suitors Hinata had had at nineteen were good enough, and by the time she turned twenty it was well past time for her to take him place. Too proud to delay the traditional power-passing any longer, the man had inaugurated her anyway.

And ever since the ceremony, Neji had heard rumors. The unmarried, female leader of the Hyuuga clan was planning to do away with the main and branch house divisions, or Hyuuga Hinata was defying her father Hiashi for the first time in her life.

Neji hadn't dared to believe it. But here she was, smiling at him from behind eyes that held both determination and happiness, something he had never expected to see in Hinata's face at the same time.

Hinata looked forward at the sun that had turned orange and dim as it began its descent. "Neji nii-san…I was contacted today by Tsunade-sama."

He too watched the sunset while he listened to her soft voice. He found it soothing; he had protected this person all of his life and hearing her speak managed to calm him in a way that he had experienced for a very long time. Because of it, he at first missed the implication in her statement. "Tsunade-sama?"

"Yes. She told me that you have been invited into ANBU multiple times."

This alerted him, and Neji unconsciously fisted his hands on his knees. His only response was a single nod.

"Then I must ask…why have you refused every time?"

His head swiftly shifted to look at her, but he found Hinata's eyes steady and serene. "Hinata-sama?" he queried, but she only waited. At last, he lowered his eyes to look at the wood grain on the porch and thought back to what he had been told throughout his life. "As the only remaining clan with useful power in Konoha, it is my duty to stay here, as Hyuuga tradition—"

"But you don't believe that, Neji nii-san." Hinata smiled when he sent her a questioning look. "Ever since we were quite young, I have seen you watching birds and wishing to be like them." She did not say the name of that wish because Hinata herself would never know it.

Freedom.

"And I worry," she confessed, "that if you stay here much longer, whether physically or out on missions, you shall stop being the man I so admire."

"I…"

"When Tenten-san left, you changed." She was surprisingly blunt. Hearing a name that had stayed quiet for so long caught him off guard, and his eyes widened. "Not quickly – because you are very accepting, Neji nii-san – but after a year I knew that you were becoming someone you would not be if Tenten-san were still in Konoha."

Forgetting manners, Neji began to move to his feet in a move he didn't realize was defensive. "Hinata-sama."

She held up a hand that both held and silenced him. "I do not often ask to speak uninterrupted." That alone was enough to ground him. "My point is, I am doing this because I do not wish to see you discontented when I know that I can do something to make you happy. You are the first family member to desperately wish for absolute leave from the Hyuuga compound. Someone must initiate a change, for I think there will be others after you."

"I do not wish for you to risk yourself," Neji admitted quietly. Even as he spoke, his pulse was drumming with the possibility of finally being granted what he had dreamed of all his life.

"The risk of losing you to ANBU is far less than if you were to become so desperate you left Konoha altogether." Hinata nodded with certainty as she spoke. "We've seen that happen before."

It was odd, Neji thought, to hear Hinata speak of that person who so often stayed unmentioned. Raising his gaze until it was level with hers, he stared.

"Please go," she told him quietly, "and bring honor to our family through your own decisions."

And something swelled inside of him, surging until he thought he might break in two with the force of it—

"But tell me, Neji nii-san. Are you truly ready to leave this way of life for the way of another?"

The question floored him. If Hinata had figured out so much about him, why would she ask…? But then he understood. "Hinata-sama…" He went to his knees and bowed in the way she disliked but felt was necessary at the moment. "Yes."

She reached into the crimson obi around her waist and brought out a folded piece of paper. "This is an ANBU registry form. You are to return it to Tsunade-sama in the morning." When he took it from her, Hinata reached forward to grasp his wrist. She was smiling. "I told her to expect you, so please be on time."

He stared at her. It was as though she had just sewn wings into the flesh of his back and he could take off any moment and soar if he wished. "Hinata-sama…" He could not find the words, and he understood why.

Hyuuga Hinata had changed their family's fate in every way he had believed she could not.

"Uzumaki Naruto was right about you," he said at last. He allowed himself the tiniest of smiles; his first since Tenten had left.

Almost immediately, color crept from her neck to her hairline. "N-Neji nii-san!" Despite her embarrassment, there was the presence of tears that glimmered in the corners of her eyes which he thought had changed so much.

What Neji did not realize was that his cousin's eyes had become exactly like his own, even beyond the shade.

The next morning, he accepted his official ANBU mask. The face of it was that of a bird's.

_To Be Continued…_


	4. The More We Come To Learn

**A/N: **All right, all right, I know it's been a very long time since my last update and I do heartily apologize. I've been working on other fics, including several one-shots, my latest fic for my collaboration with Berry, and a contest. And for those of you unsatisfied with that explanation, I was also involved in a local play of "Dracula" this month so I was busy with that. But it's over now and I've got a lot more time to write. So! Hopefully updates will be quicker in coming. Thanks for staying with me.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Daring To Bleed**

By Nessie

Chapter Four: The More We Come To Learn

Neji arrived at the front of the Kazekage's office building at exactly seven on the dot. With Lee at his side, he utilized years' worth of careful training to effectively tune out the senseless babbling of the Beautiful Green Beast as he went on and on about "How divine the deep red rays of the glorious desert sunset appear!" or "I do admire the abilities of the people in this village to withstand such challenging heat!" Because at the moment, Neji could not think of much besides the fact that the evening sun, with hardly any sun to tone it down, irritated his delicate eyes. And that he found the heat frustrating.

And that Tenten was coming out of her front door and crossing the street toward them.

She had exchanged the traditional Suna robes from that morning for a style better suited for Konoha residents – whether in welcome, in memory, or torture, Neji didn't know. A dark color that was more silver than white had been spun into a shirt that covered her from the base of her neck to the curve of her hips. Sleeveless, it was made of a gauzy material that rippled attractively when she moved, drawing attention to the sun-darkened slopes of her shoulders. Over her legs she wore loose black dress pants that would allow her skin to breathe while in the throes of the humidity outside. Plain black sandals were strapped over her feet, and they looked worn enough that she might very well have owned them when she was still living in Konoha.

Every inch of visible skin from just below her shoulders to just above her ankles was overlaid with non-extravagant fishnet. And while such a thing was seen as more practical than promiscuous where they came from, Neji couldn't help but feel a twinge of something undeniably physical upon seeing the rows of diamonds on her skin, making him want to brush his fingertips over the bare spaces.

If the members of his ANBU squad were to suspect he ever had such thoughts, Neji was sure that each of them would die laughing.

Lee, however, knew when his partner was affected and took it upon himself to make sure the Hyuuga understood that lecherous thoughts of any sort were strictly prohibited – for now – by making it worse. "_TENTEN_!" he shouted, as loudly as he was capable. Several pairs of eyes belonging to various passersby shifted in his direction. "You are lovelier than the frost-covered waterfalls of—!"

Neji slapped a hand over his mouth a hair too late. The eyes swiveled across the way to land on Tenten, whose face grew surprisingly pink from the excessive attention. He could feel Lee triumphantly chuckle against his wrist and released him in exasperation. Less than a single day in Suna and Lee had already managed to embarrass both of them in front of half the village.

Tenten hurriedly made her way to them. Right away, she reached up and yanked Lee to her. "You have to be _quieter _here, Lee," she told him, eyes narrowed to demonstrate the seriousness of the matter. "The people here appreciate things that are low-key and subtle." Knowing her friend was neither of those things, she grinned. "Tone it down about three hundred notches."

It had taken practically no time for her fall back into step of supervising Lee, Neji noted with a twinge of unexpectedness. Perhaps he'd been wrong about Tenten and she hadn't changed so much. If nothing else, the antics between her and Lee had caused him to have to catch himself before he smirked.

When Tenten was satisfied (and this involved a vigorous nodding from a clamp-mouthed Lee horrified that he might have offended his new hosts), she turned to the Hyuuga witnessing. "I don't suppose you two have any idea of what you want to see?"

It took Neji a moment to find his voice, but when he did it came out easily enough. "You've been here three years. I suggest you lead."

Tenten nodded. "Sure." The response was undeniably brisk. "Come with me, then." Pivoting, she took a left, and the boys who had in the years of her absence become men followed her with differing levels of certainty. Lee marched jovially behind and Neji took the rear, his arms folded and his mouth set in an unconvinced frown.

This woman hadn't yet shown him who she had become.

* * *

For dinner, she took them to Shigure's eatery, a small booth-like restaurant not too dissimilar from Ichiraku Ramen back in Konoha. Unlike the often pleasant Ichiraku, however, Shigure was a large man whose typically gruff mannerisms would most likely discourage all customers if not for the fact that his meals were nothing short of phenomenal.

When they arrived, there were only two or three people already seated. They had beat the evening rush. With a smile and a wave toward Shigure, who nodded them toward three open stools, Tenten turned to her companions. "I hope you're hungry. The portions here are fairly big."

Lee's eyes grew wide as he caught the scents drifting toward them from the partially hidden kitchen area. "Do they have curry?" he inquired excitedly.

Tenten patted his arm as she shook her head. "The climate in Suna and the minimal amount of fertile soil here doesn't allow local farmers to grow the herbs. They are imported, but the funding here is still a little too instable for regular goods to be brought in. And with so little grass to feed most mammals, the majority of the meat here is grain-fed animals. Mostly fowl."

"There's pork," added Neji shortly after skimming his powerful eyes over a menu. "You like pork, Lee." He said it as though he was speaking to a child too young to decide on a choice for himself.

Lee bobbed his head energetically and held up a finger. "But I think I shall partake of some delicious chicken! Teriyaki, of course!"

"And you, Neji?" Even as she turned toward the Hyuuga, Tenten could feel that he was already looking at her. When their eyes connected, she felt an odd thrill, immediately followed by a sense of guilt – as though she had no right to be affected by him.

But how, Tenten reasoned, could she not be? Just looking at him made it impossible for her to not notice the various ways he had changed over only three years. He was even more handsome than he'd been at nineteen. And there was an energy that surrounded him now…a sort of light that emanated from him, the way he held himself, and it went beyond the same arrogance she had lived with for seven years. In a good way.

"This is my treat," she added. Tenten found herself smiling, and even she was surprised by her own actions. Neji betrayed no outward emotion, simply nodded, but she would wonder later if she had only imagined the way he tightened his fingers on the menu.

A corner of her mouth quirked up, although Tenten barely realized it. She almost made a crack about the Hyuugas' sensitive palates but carefully refrained. The tension between Neji and herself was obvious; jokes she might have made with a certain sense of familiarity when they had worked together were not allowable for her today.

"I'll take the pork dish," he told her just in time for them to give Shigure their orders. Tenten relayed the requests, adding her own, and helped to pass out cups of iced green tea. She saw Lee become first skeptical of the beverage, then in elation of it, remarking with zeal on its ingenuity. It would take some time, she thought with amusement, before the genius of hard work would manage to adjust to all the differences from Konoha that Suna possessed.

Dinner was…manageable. Neji miffed her several times with his lack of participation despite her attempts to be civil. He seemed fit to either ignore her or openly brush her off. When she had politely – perhaps stiffly – offered him a taste of her grilled vulture, he had glanced at her for a total of one-and-a-half seconds before informing her that he was too traditional to try such primitive beast and would she please respect his wish to eat in silence?

_Jerk_, Tenten mentally replied. If she wasn't currently living in a village where the majority of the citizens were introverted and border-lined on rude by nature she may have exploded right in his face. As it was, she simply stuffed her mouth with chopsticks full of rice and eagerly tuned in to Lee's continuous chatter.

But try as she might, her senses kept drifting back to almost complete awareness of Neji sitting on her other side, soundlessly partaking of his first meal in town and seemingly doing nothing but wreaking havoc on her mind.

She had nearly forgotten that he used to do that. But that was just one of the reasons she had come here, wasn't it? To find her place in the world without the influence of an arrogant and realistically more talented teammate that had seen her as little more than an asset right up until—

"_I can't imagine a day without seeing you at least once."_

The hand that held her teacup shook, evoking miniature waves in the now-melted drink. What a time for a memory like that. It was really quite difficult to stay angry with Neji when she knew he had said those words to her, long ago. He had spoken hurriedly but with as much honesty as she had ever known him to own. Her brow furrowed as the irritation dissolved only to be replaced by melancholy she hadn't experienced since those early bouts of homesickness she had suffered from upon first arriving three years ago.

_Neji,_ she wondered with pity ripping at the edges of her heart, _what's made you this way?_

She had no way of knowing that her lack of comprehension for him was as frustrating as Neji's was for her. Misunderstanding, it seemed they would remain indifferent to each other the rest of the evening, even when they stepped outside the restaurant. A welcome, sandy breeze greeted them. The sky had darkened to a deep shade of navy blue, and the three of them took in the smattering of stars that winked from overheard like swiftly-painted brushstrokes. Lanterns were being lit along the street, and Tenten took a deep breath, released it slowly.

She would be fine, even with him here. She _was _fine.

Without warning, the peaceful quiet of the early night was broken by a long, wailing sob. Instantly alert, all three ninjas that had made up Team Gai jerked in the direction of the commotion. Surest in this place, Tenten began running first, the men at her heels. She rounded a corner to find a small girl. Brownish-red hair was tangled and stringy in her face, her black robes bunched from her place on the ground. She was scrubbing at her face with pudgy and dusty hands, streaking her cheeks with wet tear trails. Her bottom lips quivered as she clamped her mouth together when Tenten approached. It was obvious the little girl was trying to put on a brave face. And when she looked up at her with huge green eyes, the weapons user realized she knew her.

Tenten kneeled down beside her. "Hey, Keizu-chan, I haven't seen you by the shop in a couple of weeks. What on earth is the matter?"

"Tenten-san!" It was unusual for a Suna resident to show so much emotion, even at such a tender age, so Tenten was taken aback when the small Keizu got to her feet and threw herself, trembling, into her arms. "I know I shouldn't… Father says I shouldn't cry," she whimpered sorrowfully. "But they took my doll, and it was from grandpa, and…and they took it!" Keizu pointed a plump finger in the direction of an adjacent street corner, and Tenten looked up to note with disapproval two boys who were tossing a hand-sewn doll between them with no more care than if it had been a hacky-sack.

"I see," Tenten murmured at last, briefly forgetting about her guests who looked upon her with an odd combination of awe and shock. Patting Keiko's longhaired head, she straightened and narrowed her eyes at the offending miscreants. "Well, I suppose justice must be served here, Keiko-chan."

There was already an anticipatory gleam in the young girl's eye. "Tenten-san!"

She accepted Keiko's exclamation of her name as though it was a pistol firing to commence a footrace, and she dashed toward the two boys just as one of them released the doll into the air for another throw.

The other boy never caught it. In a flash, Tenten had snatched the doll and now stood behind the boys, one hand placed on a cocked hip, the other holding the doll as carefully as if it were a precious gemstone. "For a ninja," she admonished with a serious face, "it's especially heinous to show cruelty to someone smaller than you."

The two boys stepped backward, then swiveled as though preparing to bolt, but Tenten leapt forward to grab each of them by the hood of their robes. "Come on," one of them moaned pathetically. "We were just playing a game, Tenten-san."

"With something that's not yours," Tenten finished, "taken heartlessly from someone in your village who you are sworn to protect because you're older. I won't have it!" She gave both of them a rough shake. "If it happens again, I'm going to make sure your parents know when they come into my store. And what kind of shinobi gets told on to his parents?" She released them, pushing them just hard enough that they stumbled before regaining balance. "Now apologize to Keiko-chan!" she ordered.

Both boys uttered swift words of regret to their victim, gracing her with low bows before scampering off toward home. Tenten sighed and shook her head a little, then walked back toward Keiko. She placed the doll gently in her little hands and smiled down at her. "Keiko-chan," she said, "no more tears tonight, okay? Even if kunoichi do have to cry sometimes."

Keiko beamed. "Thank you!" Turning, she ran off on her short legs, clutching the prized doll to her chest. Tenten watched her go with a smile before she felt two pairs of eyes on her. Tilting her head at the two looking on, she lifted an eyebrow.

"What?"

Lee immediately broke out into a string of childlike giggles. "Tenten," he gasped when he had enough air, "you've become good with children!"

Setting her hands on her hips, Tenten glared. "I don't see why that's so unpredictable. I mean, all women have those crazy maternal instincts, right?"

"You always said kids bothered you," Lee pointed out, his grin refusing to shrink. "They interrupted your training, put themselves in danger—"

"I was that bad?" she demanded. But humor danced in her eyes, giving her a glow that a nearby streetlamp could not. "Well, they all try so hard here. They aren't lazy like we were." Her gaze switched from Lee to Neji. "Some of us."

Neji wore an expression that surprised her. He regarded her with more attention than he had since arriving that morning, and for a second Tenten thought her pulse had paused.

"You were a very hard worker," Neji murmured at last. His pearl-like eye had a hypnotizing effect, and Tenten was aware of herself shaking her head in denial even though she couldn't actually feel the movement.

Her voice seemed distant when she spoke, muffled by memories and years that suddenly seemed to pass between the two of them. "Not as much as you, Neji."

The street remained quiet for a moment, the only sound the chirping of desert insects and Lee's chuckles that were soft for once. She had a sensation of wanting this moment to be preserved; she felt for the first time in three years that she was finally reconnecting with him…the man who had been more partner than normal teammate. Tenten realized with difficulty that she had missed that.

She had missed _him_.

But as time had repeatedly shown them, peaceful moments are only just those – moments. Without a hint of warning, the deep stillness of the night was blown into disruption by a massive explosion halfway across the village. Tenten gasped and turned to face the enormous blaze, crimson and gold and green, that had burst into existence just where—

"Gaara-san's office!" exclaimed Lee, his eyes going wide. In contrast, Neji's eyes had narrowed as he activated his doujutsu with the so-familiar call of Byakugan that Tenten had not heard since leaving home.

"One thousand-forty-eight feet," pronounced the Hyuuga without delay.

Tenten started at a sprint without comment, then leapt to the nearest rooftop, her fellow Jounin directly behind.

* * *

The scene was an eye-aching conflagration that, to Tenten's relief, was already being fought by the time they arrived. Lee and Neji even seemed to be impressed at the speed that the Sand acted with.

First she spotted Gaara himself, standing unharmed and rigid on the far sidewalk, forming various seals to manipulate large quantities of sand that rose up like sea waves only to "splash" down upon the Kazekage office building. Each attack cut the flames down to half their size.

Eerie shadows haunted the windows that were not obscured by embers, and Tenten was about to call the presence of enemy ninja before she recognized the odd shapes to be the Crow and the Salamander, controlled on barely-perceptible chakra strings by Kankurou, who stood just out of the fire's reach at the base of the building. It was not too long before both puppets were brought down from the window ledges to the street below, and Tenten noticed with a jolt of surprise that there were files and portfolios attached to the ninja tools.

"Kankurou-san!" she yelled out, waving to the older male of the three Suna siblings once he had turned toward her. She took off toward him, leaving Neji to survey the damage with the Byakugan, as he was sure to be doing. "What happened?" she queried urgently.

"Explosive tags," he suggested in his low tones, "or maybe even a low-level bomb. The patrol guards didn't detect anything. It went off about three minutes ago." Stooping over, he retrieved the various papers from the Salamander and the Crow. "I managed to rescue the most important of Gaara's documents. It looks like all the village-building plans are still here," he reported as he briefly flipped through a few folders.

Gaara's voice sounded from behind Tenten. "And the fire's out now. The building is reparable, I'm sure."

Tenten looked at him with eyes she didn't know contained so much worry. "Who would have done this?"

"The people that brought us here," offered Neji as he and Lee joined them. He had already deactivated the Byakugan and now looked upon each of them in turn, his eyes holding more knowledge that he had apparently released as of yet. "The Fifth sent us for a reason, you remember. Last month, when my ANBU squad was on a mission in the Land of Water, I discovered a half-formed plan by the Hidden Village of Mist to sabotage this country's construction efforts."

Tenten froze, remembering Gaara's words to her from the previous night. _"Hokage Tsunade informed me that your village's special unit, ANBU, found out that another nation is planning to infiltrate the Land of Wind while Suna is busy overseeing the construction and take advantage of it somehow."_

"You were the informant."

Neji's eyes landed on her, and the light within them was confirmation enough, even if her words hadn't been posed as a question. Wordlessly, he looked at up at the more-than-half-scorched office building. "When can you rebuild?"

"I won't concern myself with my own building until we've made headway with the new village," answered Gaara, not modestly, but prosaically. The contractors that I hired from the Land of Grass will be arriving in the morning."

"I'll have to explain the danger to them," sighed Kankurou. "I bet you that half of those wimpy engineers will back out of this by the end of week one."

"Then we hire different engineers and pay them more than the Grass. I'm very serious about this project," Gaara told all of them. His crystalline eyes appeared to be twin shards of ice that reflected the crescent moon dangling above them. "Hyuuga Neji, I will require further information on the Mist-nin from you than what was presented to me in your file. I will need to know how to combat their efforts and what their motive for attack is."

Neji had tensed at the suggestion that his work had been insufficient, but he replied smoothly. "Very well. I will initiate contact with Konoha. I should hear back from them and have more records for you by noon tomorrow."

In a cold move, Gaara did not acknowledge the dedicated words and instead set his eyes on Tenten. "Are you alright?" he inquired softly. There was a noticeable change in his eyes as he spoke to her.

Before Tenten could form a response, Neji had stepped up and was replying for her. "Of course she is. Tenten is not like other women, and she certainly isn't as easily halted as most kunoichi." There was a hard edge to his voice that was only audible to the closest listener.

Gaara's features tightened, giving indication that he was listening _quite_ closely. "I've become aware of that in the last few years, thank you."

Tenten's brown eyes darted between them as though she were watching a sparring match. Her stomach twisted unpleasantly. "Thanks, but I'm fine," she added, her words seeming unnecessary after their short exchange.

"It is late," Lee suddenly jumped in, rescuing them all from a potentially awkward scenario. Tenten thanked every god ever conceived for her friend. "And there has been too much excitement for people so used to lack of action here. I suggest that we all turn in for some sleep. Neji and I will also message Konoha." Angling his head, he gave Tenten a wink that only she could see.

Nodding, she smiled. "Good work, Kankurou-san." She bowed her head. "Gaara-sama."

"Tenten," began Gaara.

Neji's eyes sharpened.

"I'm quite thankful that the flames did not spread to my shop," she commented as she started to step backward, toward her apartment. "And don't worry about me, everyone. Please get some rest." She almost told them that she was used to the smell of ash in her sleep as too often her life as a kunoichi in a city primarily dominated by shinobi left her with dreams fit for horror novels. She had adapted to them the same way she had adapted to the sand getting in her shoes or the heat dampening her hair.

And if anyone had the right to be concerned, she thought as she reached her bedroom and watched the four men – two of them brothers by birth, the other two brothers by the will of Fire – it was her.

_To Be Continued…_


	5. Change of Heart

**A/N**: See? Not such a long wait this time. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and I'm glad so many of you are interested in the fic. I'm really curious to how you think this particular chapter turned out, as there is a descriptive action scene and action is not my particular strong point. So if you feel like it, drop me a line and let me know if you approve or not!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fic.

**Daring To Bleed**

By Nessie

Chapter Five: Change of Heart

At three o' clock in the morning, Rock Lee woke with a start. He wasn't sure if the call of a desert bird had stirred him, or if it had been the muggy climate, or perhaps remnants of the iced green tea adjusting itself to his stomach – whatever the reason, he launched himself upright in bed, eyes locking on the slightest existing movement in the room.

That movement happened to be Neji, sliding the window down into a firmly-shut position. In a matter of moments, Lee managed to take in the single candle flickering from a desk, the swing of the blinds as Neji lowered them, _and _the small scroll that his partner now held betwixt his fingers.

Someone had come and gone.

As if reading his questioning thoughts, Neji shot a glance his way and moved toward the desk. "That was a shinobi from my ANBU squad. He brought word from the Fifth."

Even in his grogginess, Lee was still able to be impressed by the unstoppable efficiency of ANBU. "They're fast."

"He was an hour later than I expected him," intoned Neji, dropping into a chair and bending over the desk to unroll the scroll. His white eyes began to speedily survey the contents, but Lee wasn't so sleepy that he could not see the Hyuuga's own tiredness.

"Neji, you should try to get some sleep." Lee put on his take-care-of-yourself face, which involved an interested glare/pout mix. "You'll wear yourself out."

"I told the Kazekage that I would have information to him by this afternoon." The corners of his mouth tightened visibly. "In this I will not fail."

Knowing better than to try and argue with him without some negotiation, Lee started to get up. "Then allow me to take over for a few hours, at least."

"It's fine." Neji kept track of his reading place with a long, somewhat-scarred finger.

"But how," persisted Lee, with the beginning traces of a grin blooming on his face, "will you fight Gaara-san if you're exhausted?"

Neji's finger froze. Then he sat up straight and angled his head toward Lee, consternation clearly etched on his solemn features. "Who ever said that I intend to fight him?"

Lee very nearly laughed, but the combination of the early hour and Neji's admirable determination kept him from doing so. "Every time you look at Gaara-san, you give the impression that you want to Gentle Fist him in the face." His amusement driving him, his eyes glittered in the dim light. It battled the darkness that Neji's scowl emanated.

"I do _not_ want to Gentle Fist him in the face."

"You do too!" exclaimed Lee, sounding horrifically like he was a thirteen-year-old Genin again instead of a man of twenty-three. "Especially tonight when he just kept staring at Tenten."

Here Neji went entirely still, and Lee briefly wondered if he had gone too far. He had expected this topic would come up between them eventually, but perhaps he had rushed things? Feeling badly, he told himself that he would stay up just as late as Neji the next night, except he would spend the waking hours running full-on sprints in the _sand _around the village. Lee knew that Gai-sensei, were he present, would remind him that "you have to be in CHARGE of your youthful spirit! Let it GUIDE your FIERY HEART, but do not allow it to CONTROL your actions!"

_Yes, Gai-sensei! _he inwardly shouted.

Lee forced himself to calm down and spoke again, this time much more quietly. "How are you really feeling, Neji? You were pretty distant to each other at first, but then you saw her with those kids. And it changed your thoughts, didn't it?"

Neji looked at him with a curious expression the genius of hard work could not quite put a name to. "I suppose, to live in a village like this, one has to…adapt," he murmured. "Would that not be so?"

Smiling, Lee nodded. "You had to adapt to leaving the Hyuuga compound, didn't you?"

The words seemed to sink in, much to the Green Beast's satisfaction. Neji turned back to the scroll with an energy Lee knew to be renewed vigor, even if the ANBU captain gave no outward signs of it. After a moment, Neji finished reading the scroll, and retrieved a fresh roll of parchment from his pack by the wall.

"If that Kazekage wants information," growled Neji, his voice edged with a surprising well of spirit, "then he'll have it. And it shall be damn _perfect_."

"Are you sure you don't want me to take over on bastardizing the Mist-nin?" asked Lee dutifully. "I can—"

"_No_," Neji snapped, tearing off some paper, his eyes flicking back to the recently-received scroll. "I'll finish within the hour," he assured, "and then I'll get some sleep." The light of the candle gave a sharp, shadowy glow to his increasingly determined expression.

Lee made a sound of agreement, and then threw himself back against the pillows. Satisfied that he had done all he could to assist his longtime friend and rival, he turned on his side, the furious scribbling of pen on parchment – akin to the sound of a fire of youth – lulled him to sleep.

---

"And I've heard that Kankurou-san has already lost at least two of the contractors once he informed them of last night's attack." A young man, Kiwamura Sanosuke, spoke seriously with a straight spine and a tough expression. Hailing from the Land of the Waterfall, wore the same kind of robes worn by everyone else in the Land of Wind, but he had cut off the sleeves from the garment and kept his bare arms crossed over his chest. Dark hair fell arrow-straight to the nape of his neck, partially hiding odd green eyes, and he had not yet taken to leaving his _hitai-ate _off, despite having been in the country nearly as long as Tenten. He kept the Waterfall village's symbol around his left leg, and the metal plate glinted in the light that sneaked into the shop where he stood in.

Tenten sighed, frustration more than disappointment coating the exhale. "Of course, that's only going to make the other workers nervous," she nodded. "Will you pass me that mallet, Sanosuke-san? I wonder," she added without breaking the conversation's rhythm, "if Gaara-sama has plans for the security of the construction."

Sanosuke raised an eyebrow as he handed her the requested tool. He watched her hammer away at a half-finished fuuma-shuriken for a few moments before replying. "Isn't that why your village sent those two shinobi here?"

Tenten paused with the mallet raised, but only for a third of a second, and then shrugged the shoulder bracing the new weapon on the table in front of her. "I suppose so. As far as I know, Gaara-sama has only given them accommodations and requested further information so far. He hasn't actually given them a strategy for the protection of the contractors."

"There are Grass ninja here that I know will take care of their own. Many are still eager to see this new project through, even if it takes another three years."

"Three years?" Tenten chuckled a little, keeping her eyes on her task. "We finished two villages in that time." _But we didn't have an enemy on our backs then_, she added to herself. "Do you really think that everyone from the other countries will want to stay here for that long?"

When Sanosuke gave no answer, she glanced up. She had known the mostly-quiet man since his arrival four months after her own. He had been an enormous help in building the previous villages, his skill with electric wiring more than useful – it was vital. He was the only one from his country in the Sand. It was amazing to her still that he knew so much, as she knew that the Hidden Village of the Waterfall powered their city with hydroelectricity rather than underground circuits. She and Sanosuke were as close as two foreigners could be in a land where they were only living for work.

At a prompting eyebrow lift from Tenten, he said, "I have informed my village's leaders that I will stay here as long as my services are required. Others, I believe, will do the same, if not everyone. And you?"

Tenten smiled, but there was a tinge of sadness to it. Memories swept over her mind, as they had done increasingly ever since Neji and Lee's arrival.

"_I'll promise you, if that what you need. I'll come back."_

"I…haven't decided." Her brow furrowed briefly.

"Your mind has not been swayed by your involvement with the Kazekage?"

Stunned brown eyes shot up to meet questioning green ones. "What a question, Sanosuke-san."

"Forgive me," he backpedaled. "I was just curious, but you've no reason to supply me with answers. I only came here to update you on Kankurou-san's situation. Is there anything I can do for you before I go?"

"No, thank you." Tenten smiled once more, and this time it was genuine. "I'm lessening my daily quota now that the building is commencing. I need to keep myself open for tool repair and even battle, should it be necessary."

"Let's hope it is not." With a slight bow to her, Sanosuke turned on his heel and left the shop. Tenten continued with her working, finishing the shaping of the fuuma-shuriken and leaving it in a cooling solution while she cleaned up her work area.

It was twenty minutes before another guest entered from the street.

"Well, well," murmured Tenten, who had heard the entrant with her back turned to the open door as she boxed tools and materials. "It seems I'll have many visitors today." Turning, she made to give the potential customer a pleasant smile – which fell as soon as she saw who had come to her.

"Neji?"

The eldest Hyuuga son stood in the doorway which suddenly seemed too small for him. Light flooded in around him, giving him an unreal glow and half-shadowing his distinctive eyes. Stepping forward a little, he tossed a large, sealed envelope onto her newly-cleaned work table. Her gaze dropped to it for a very brief second before surging quizzically back up to his.

"That's for your Kazekage Gaara," he said cryptically. "I imagine he'll accept you for the delivery without delay."

Tenten's mind raced. Neji had always possessed an infuriating ability that forced her to work to keep up with his unusual thought processes. _Her _Kazekage?

"You aren't going to take it to him yourself?" Tenten leaned against the shelf she stood beside as though to keep anyone from mistakenly assuming that she had put the file together. "But it's your work."

"Lee is running laps. I don't particularly feel like meeting with him on my own." Was that an undertone of savageness in Neji's words, or was that simply her misunderstanding of the three-years-older Hyuuga?

Before she could decide on whether he held negativity for Gaara or not, Neji was turning his back to her and heading for the door, without so much as a cursory glance to her shop. Something materialized inside of her, refusing to be ignored, and leaping to her throat before she could do anything about it.

"Neji!" He paused at her call.

Tenten had no idea what she wanted to say to him. It was the first time they had been alone together since the night she had informed him of her decision to leave Konoha. She blinked rapidly, willing her brain to form a thought, any thought—

"Would you like to train with me?"

Neji's body jerked strangely, and then he looked over his shoulder. Though he gave no sign of it, somehow he appeared just as startled by her question as Tenten herself was. She scrambled to follow through, tried to find words that would let him know that she'd been wrong to ask, wrong to even think that he might…

But of course, in a perfect counter-attack, he surprised her.

"Yes." And he continued out, leaving her to swiftly recover from the mental blow and scramble for artillery-filled scrolls.

---

They did not speak en route to the training ground. There was only the heat of the sun and the disturbance of the sand in the afternoon breeze. The open space in the nearly tree-less region made for a good jutsu refinement area. Offensive energy could be released without harming any wildlife or other people.

On this particular section of ground, Tenten had long ago created targets for herself made out of either imported wood or a softer type of rock, such as shale. Neji surveyed the premises with a critical eye, giving away neither approval nor dissatisfaction. Tenten found she was becoming exasperated with him for being so carefully-guarded but she too gave no indication of such a feeling.

"How shall we do this?" she finally asked once it had become apparent that Neji was disinclined to put forth any suggestion for the impromptu training session.

He moved into a stance, one she recognized to be the starting point for the Hakkesho Kaiten, but Tenten knew her old teammate's fighting style, even if she didn't really know _him _anymore. Neji would never close off her tenketsu that quickly; he liked to analyze and learn his opponent's idea of combat. He enjoyed observing the way they approached a battle.

And, if he was still anything like Tenten, he was as interested in her progressions from the last few years as she was in his.

Tenten assumed her own stance, holding the small scroll out in front of her. She swiftly ran through this scroll's contents in her mind, figuring what would work best against him without judging too hastily – it had been too long since they had sparred for her to know what he was now capable of.

Although she knew already that it would be a lot.

As only the best ninja can, they read each other's intent perfectly and both acted at once; Neji surged forward just as Tenten leapt up six feet in the air, his head narrowly missing the underside of her left leg as she shot out a kick and prepared to bring it down on his back.

Too slow. The blow that would have jarred his spine became harmless in the face of Neji's speed. He moved out from beneath her, sending her down for the ground with hardly any time to recover. She landed on her right foot and jumped again, repositioning herself to face him. She could always jump higher than he could.

She came eye to eye with a taught-veined Byakugan, and her pulse skidded a little when she realized that Neji hadn't even been using the blood-line technique to evade her previous kick. And now that he was reading her moves…

With a whip of her arm, the scroll unrolled, wrapping around her lithe body like a ribbon and releasing a weapon she knew Neji would never guess her to have.

Landing, she pulled out the twin iron fans, one in each hand. Unlike Temari's single weapon, these fans were only a little larger than normal everyday-use fans. Neji's eyebrows lowered, and she felt a sense of satisfaction in having done something unexpected.

She kept the fans closed, aiming them like knives, and advanced toward him. She knew she couldn't surpass his speed without being Rock Lee, but there were others ways to fight him.

"Fans?" Neji spoke at last, showing his wonder at her new choice of weapon. "You've never used them before."

"Wrong. I've been using these for close to three years." She did not use the fans at first but went for another kick aimed at his head. Neji blocked with a fast arm, appearing content to listen to the history for now rather than go on the offensive. "I've trained with Temari in my days here."

Neji's mouth was stern, prompting her to begin her plan of attack. Stepping two paces away, she assured distance between them with a quick succession of back-flips, the sand beneath them failing to hinder her in the least while he was forced to concentrate just to keep his equilibrium.

This was her chance, Tenten thought, if she could seize it. Neji would soon see that she had done as he would most certainly have done. She had trained, she had improved. Most importantly she had learned.

She threw away the scroll, took purchase of her closed fans, and summed chakra to her hands. In an instant, silvery-blue strands of chakra flowed from the tips of her fingers to the edges of the fans, and they left her grip, spearing toward the Hyuuga at a speed greater than she could hope to achieve on her own.

"Chakra strings!" He called the technique as though by saying it aloud, he could figure out how to defend against it. "You learned from that Kankurou." He spun, forming a miniature version of the Kaiten. Tenten was glad to see that she had finally forced him to counter. But Neji had not combated this technique before, and there was only so much he could do.

Or was there?

One of the fans flew away from the force of the Kaiten, only to be forgotten atop a sand dune. The outline of her opponent was a taunting shadow from inside that chakra cyclone, and she nearly cursed.

He was still quite the genius. And this…all of this was too familiar. Training, sparring matches; it was like they were thirteen again, sixteen, nineteen. It was like Konoha. _It was like before._

Thinking fast and determined not to be impressed by him, Tenten gritted her teeth, pulling back the fan attached to her right hand to rescue it from the same fate. And then Neji did what she had been waiting for him to do—

He underestimated her, and he halted his Kaiten, thinking he had negated both of her assaults.

The remaining fan opened with a flick of her wrist, the width clipping him with a teeth-rattling smack square in the jaw before he had the appropriate amount of time to recover from all of the spinning necessary for the Kaiten. Neji was knocked off-balance by the unseen force, and down he went.

Tenten's own eyes widened. Despite her confidence, she had never really thought she could take him. He was Hyuuga Neji…

…and he was staring up at her, the Byakugan already vanished, from the flat of his back. Sand flew in a cloud around him for a handful of seconds, and then settled. She approached him carefully, wonder more than evident on her face.

"Are you alright?" she heard herself ask. There was a feeling of detachment that came with defeating someone like him. It was…power? She wasn't sure (although she knew it would explain why he had always been such an egotist). She _did _know that Neji himself looked as though he'd been ambushed with no way to defend himself. It was, quite frankly, unsettling even if she had been the one to cause him to have such an appearance. "Neji?"

Neji slowly nodded in the affirmative, sand getting in his black hair. "You've gotten stronger, Tenten." Somehow he managed to retain dignity in his tone even as he lay there.

She felt an odd thrill zing up her spine at the sound of her name on his tongue. "So have you," she relented. Tenten extended a hand, which he took. They paused for a moment, just a hundredth of a second, and then she pulled Neji up to his feet.

"Congratulations," he said after a small bout of silence, "on your new technique from Kankurou and Temari."

The words only surprised her further, and she was unsure of how to respond. "You're faster these days," she remarked, feeling foolish.

They simultaneous realized that his hand was still in hers and released each other at the same moment. Tenten rubbed her robe-covered arms as though she were cold. How on earth, she queried in her head, could Neji still pull off being sexy with sand in his hair and a speedily-forming bruise on the side of his jaw?

And then Tenten spotted something and couldn't repress the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Wow, Neji," she commented. "You've actually managed to get sunburned beneath your chin."

That very chin, proud as it was, rose defiantly. "Just because you won a sparring match doesn't give you license to mock me."

He sounded so much like his uncle – and probably his father – that Tenten's grin only widened. And there was something within the depths of his unique eyes now; something that resembled…respect; something he had not given to her since the day she left Konoha. "Thank you for the practice, Neji." Try as she might, she couldn't find anything else to say to him, and so she turned and made to return to the village.

She got ten paces away from him before his voice, smooth and level, reached her again.

"Train with me tomorrow."

Her head bowed, mahogany strands of hair that had come loose during their match falling into her face. Her heart pounded, and she thanked the higher forces that his special technique was in his eyes and not in his ears.

"We'll see," she said, and continued on without a backward glance, although she felt his eyes on her even after she was out of his normal line of sight, feeling the whole time that he wanted her to stay.

But Tenten couldn't have stayed longer – because she had wanted to tell him yes.

---

Back in Tenten's shop, which now glowed with the fire of a fading sunset, a leader's hand picked up the previously-forgotten file of information, tightening around it with steadily-growing anger.

_To Be Continued…_


	6. Rise Or Fall

**A/N**: You all were so concerned after the last chapter that it really energized me to work on this one! So I hope you enjoy it. There are some developments!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fic.

**Daring To Bleed**

By Nessie

Chapter Six: Rise Or Fall

Tenten spent the rest of the evening alone, except for a brief period with Lee after he had unexpectedly dropped in to try and get her to revel with him over the explosively delightful taste and texture of the spiced dumplings special to this region of the Land of Wind.

She spent forty-five minutes fielding half-hearted accusations that she had been hiding her knowledge of such a wonderful treat from him on purpose and assuring Lee that no, of course she had not forgotten him over only three years. The fully-grown man had burst into tears in perfect Maito Gai-style, looking more than ever like their eccentric sensei. Tenten worried that Lee had somehow consumed a drop of alcohol that produced his overemotional reaction to the sweets (followed by defensive strategies hastily-made in her mind in case he became violent), but in the end she concluded that her friend had just been the victim of a sugar high gone wrong.

It wasn't until she had decided to turn in for the night, after briefly entertaining the idea of starting to read one of the numerous books that Sakura had sent her over the years in Suna, that Tenten allowed herself to think of Neji.

She could still feel the warmth of his palm in her hand, and the way he had seared those silver eyes of his into hers. The gaze had been powerful enough that it seemed she could still feel it upon her, and that if she were to look over her shoulder, she would find him there – watching her with the eternal calm known to be gifted to all in the Hyuuga clan.

Ascending the stairs to her bedroom, Tenten reached for the drape at the window so she could change her clothes in privacy, but she paused at the window sill. The night seemed somehow darker, with the scent of smoke from the burning of the Kazekage offices still lingering in the air. It was a heady scent and a mysterious hour. The moon was large and fully round, reminding her once again of her former teammate's unusual, penetrating scrutiny.

Suddenly, a presence made itself known to her, and her trained eyes zeroed in on a figure shrouded by the natural darkness. Standing statuesque several rooftops away was no other than Gaara, and while he was too far for her to make out any facial expressions, there was no doubt that he was indeed watching Tenten.

Acting on instinct, Tenten bunched her fingers around the thick fabric and drew the curtain across the window with a single, jerky motion. Her heart thundered shamefully in the confines of her ribcage, reverberating through her head, and Tenten squeezed her eyes closed. She was aware of her thankfulness that Gaara did not possess a doujutsu technique to locate her chakra system and watch her through the walls of her own home. But such relief was completely unfounded; she was, by all the accounts of the village residents, the Leaf girl in a relationship with Gaara of the Sand.

Adrenaline had her stumbling awkwardly around her own room as she swiftly changed into sleeping garments – a thin, sleeveless shirt, and spandex shorts like the ones worn regularly in Konoha (all conducive to battling the ungodly heat in this country) – and when she finally threw herself into bed, Tenten found she was too restless now to sleep.

But damned if she wouldn't try.

Lee and Neji had only been here for two days. Their first day in town had ended with a dangerous attack on the heart of the village. The second had caused the birth of unsettling feelings in Tenten's own mind, not to mention a more-than-interesting sparring session with the man who, if one came right down to it, she had left behind in Konoha in order to find herself without him being there to shake her like this.

And Neji did shake her, as much as Tenten might have been loath to admit. He always had; and wasn't that just one more reason for why she had gone? She had been asked to help build the future of a country so in need of one, and she had desired unfamiliarity and a change of scene. Neji had come and, with only a Kaiten and the Byakugan, managed to drive away all of that – to restore a sense of being in a team, in Konoha…_of being at home_.

How? _How _had he done it to her, just like that?

Not to mention that there was Gaara to consider; Gaara who she had been closer to than she ever had with Neji – on an emotional level. Gaara cared about her enough to go out of his way for her, to set aside his duties as Kazekage to ask if she was alright. Gaara had inspired sensations inside of her that she had never even known of. Hell, he had even kissed her in moments of need.

Whereas Neji had only seen fit to kiss when she told him she would be going away. An unnerving irritation that she'd been sure had dissipated now resurfaced. _Neji_, she remembered, had looked upon her as hardly more than a person with which to train and refine his own skills. He had given her the feeling of being overlooked. She had told him as much the very night she'd broken the news that she would be leaving Konoha – leaving the team. But then in a complete about-face he had looked directly at her, into her, _through_ her.

And apparently, he had never stopped looking.

The situation was so confusing that it almost hurt. But it was the odd kind of pain, the kind that is laughed at, such as a punch in the shoulder from a friend for being idiotic. (Naruto and Sakura were a good example of such an occurrence.) Tenten smiled sadly to herself in the dark even as a fist of frustration formed itself from her previously-lax hand atop the cool sheets on her mattress. Even lying here in bed, like any normal person, drove her to remember things – remember what had almost passed between herself and Gaara here, remember the dagger that he had failed to cut himself on; it was even now beneath the pillow under her head.

Going through all of this made Tenten forget that she wanted to fall asleep – and, as always happens, she fell asleep at that very moment, cradling thoughts of white eyes and black hair and sand protecting unmarred skin in the center of her mind.

* * *

There was no time to focus on her selfish dilemma, Tenten realized the next morning. There was work to be done. Today she had decided to introduce herself to the construction workers and contractors from the Land of Grass before they left the region to begin the building of the new village.

She went to the inn, greeting the old woman who ran it with a smile and a bow. The old woman, like most elders in Suna, was crabby and disdained the youth of the day. But she told Tenten that all of the workers were eating together in the inner courtyard, discussing what they would start on first and preparing to depart from the village. Tenten was invited to walk in and meet with them. Thanking her, the elite kunoichi proceeded to the courtyard, but as soon as she reached out to pull back the sliding door, a hand fell cool and hard on her wrist, the fingers wrapping round the slender bone.

Her amber eyes shot upward straight into twin orbs of startling aquamarine, and Tenten inhaled sharply. She had never been able to sense Gaara's approach unless he wanted to be known, and apparently he had seen fit to sneak up on her. "Gaara-sama," she breathed once the shock had ebbed away.

Though his face stayed primarily expressionless, there was the slightest curl to the Kazekage as he spoke. "It's only ever _–sama _now, isn't it?"

Flashes of heat and cold alternated in the place he was touching her, and Tenten was abruptly reminded of the strength that this man held within him. He was the vessel of a one-tailed demon, his soul was not entirely his own. She had been there when he had released his rage in Konoha, when he had been merely twelve.

Well-placed fear and uninhibited pity dueled within her, and Tenten struggled to find words that would not offend him. "Is there a reason you're looking at me like that?"

It seemed that Gaara had not been aware of the ferocity he was radiating. Instantaneously, his grip on her wrist lessened, and he blinked. "Excuse me," he replied, taking on the tone he used when he was dealing with people he saw as helpers to his village. It had been a while since Tenten had received that tone from him. "I did not intend to startle you." His eyes narrowed a bit as he remembered his true intent, and some of the fierceness returned. "We need to talk." Releasing her altogether, he turned away and Tenten understood that he wanted her to follow him. "Don't worry," he added as an aside, "Kankurou has informed them of your availability, should they require your services."

Only a little put-off at not having the chance to speak for herself, Tenten trailed after Gaara to another courtyard, this one in the very back of the hotel. Beyond the row of rugged hedges that surrounded the yard, she could see the vast expansion of desert that would go on and on until it came to the woody borders of the Land of Fire. The horizon would, in a matter of months, hold a brand new village in the Land of Wind. For now, it was only bare, shimmering air.

Gaara never took his eyes from her, waiting patiently for her attention. "I've a question for you."

At his serious, somewhat hesitant features, some of the Konoha sass Tenten held within her rose to her mouth, and she smirked a little. "Shoot."

"Were you with that ANBU captain yesterday?"

Tenten froze, but it wasn't the question so much as the wording of it that gave her pause. It was a similar approach to one that had thrown her off the day before.

"_That's for your Kazekage Gaara."_

She began, belatedly, to wonder why the hell these two men had such issues with using each other's proper surnames! "You mean Neji?"

Gaara's frown tightened. "I have always heard that the Hyuugas are known for their commitment to a goal and for achieving that goal in impressive time."

"I don't understand." The three leading siblings in Suna, Tenten suspected, had an uncanny fondness for making you stand there and feel stupid while they spun riddles and ran guessing-games.

Fortunately, Gaara spared her the mental agony and spoke as bluntly as he ever did. "That Hyuuga informed me the night of the attack that I would have additional intelligence on the shinobi of the Mist by noon yesterday. It is nearing eleven o' clock, and I have yet to see such information."

"The file on the Mist?" murmured Tenten, recalling Neji's entrance in her shop and the thick scroll he had placed on her worktable. "But I know he had it. He wanted me to…to…"

He had come, he had put the file down, and he had gone for the door. And she'd left with him, neither of them taking the time to give the scroll a second glance. Had she _really _been so wrapped up in him that she had completely dismissed the affairs at hand? A more pertinent question: Had Neji been that distracted by _her_?

She did know that when she had gone upstairs last night, there had been no extraneous articles in the shop except for an empty cardboard tray that had held Lee's spiced dumplings. Tenten was certain of this.

"Gaara, I'm so sorry." Somehow the words didn't work well, and Gaara continued to look annoyed and unsatisfied – but not with her. Not about the file. "It was in my store. I think…someone took it!" She ended her thought with a desperate note, and Gaara wasted no time in absorbing this new proposal and acting.

"Then someone has information that they shouldn't have and knows things they shouldn't know." Gaara swept past her, and Tenten whipped around.

"Have I done something wrong?" She heard herself ask the question rather than think the words, feeling instinct separate her mouth and her mind in a traitorous maneuver.

Gaara halted at the door that led into the inn, his rigid, black-robed back facing her. The red-brown of his short hair glowed in the early sun and made him attractive even with his blatant disapproval gleaming in the eyes she could not see. "No," he murmured, his voice dangerously low. "Not directly."

Tenten stared, feeling hurt and indignant and not sure of why. If he had discovered her training session with Neji and was for some reason upset by it, there was nothing she could—

But then Gaara spoke once more and drew her thoughts back to the matter of dire importance.

"Let's go. We need to find out if that ex-teammate of yours has any copies of his work."

* * *

"Of course I have copies," was Neji's reply when asked. He didn't quite snap the words, but he did not exactly answer in a light way either. "Do you honestly believe I am amateur enough not to keep spares of my most significant work?"

Standing beside their table in the small tea café where they had located Neji and Lee, Gaara folded his arms. "I was not sure. Konoha, I am aware, has had experiences with their top ninja as…" He paused as if to sample the phrase he wanted to give. "Lacking professionalism."

Tenten could smell the smoke that preceded embers, and she jumped in. "No one is blaming you for losing the file, Neji—"

"I obviously didn't _lose _it," Neji cut in.

"Correction!" interposed Lee before the proud Hyuuga said something Gai's pupil knew he would regret. "What Tenten means to say is that everyone _knows _you didn't lose it."

Tenten thought – and she really, really hoped she imagined it – she heard Gaara exhale a little too swiftly, expressing disbelief. "Anyway," she continued, "the concern of note here is to get to the information, isn't it? Can you bring us the—"

Lee jumped in. "I'll get it right now!"

Tenten's head snapped to the right to lock gazes with him. Her inward threat was almost audible to the Beautiful Green Beast: _You had **better **not leave me here alone, Lee, so help me_—

"I really _am_ the fastest among us," Lee added, as though to follow through with an explanation of his offer. There was perhaps an extra layer of determined shine to his eyes, as though in apology to the suddenly-taught-faced woman in the group. Without another word, he raced off toward the apartment he and Neji were staying in, kicking up clouds of Sand in his wake.

Gaara followed him with a studious eye. "Quite fast," he affirmed.

"Probably the fastest in this village," added Neji.

For a moment, the two met glare for glare, but both averted their eyes discreetly enough.

Tenten wanted to groan aloud, lie on the floor, and sink into it, never to be seen again – or at least until Lee returned. It would be a far cry better than standing between the two perceptively most stubborn, tension-creating men she had ever known.

Instead, she sat in Lee's newly vacated chair. "Tea, anyone?"

If she had been worried about embers only a minute ago, she was now worried about a bonfire. One that Gaara and Neji gave the impression of being willing to throw each other into. Both men sat at the table, reluctance ostensible in both of their countenances. When it appeared that neither of them was going to contribute to the present issue, she folded her hands on the table and let out a long sigh, not caring what they thought.

"If you're not going to cooperate, I'm not going to be your go-between. I'm a volunteer here," she said firmly, looking Gaara square in the eye. "Meaning that I'm not your employee nor your subordinate. My efforts are for this village as a whole, not solely for its Kazekage." Gaara stared at her, his darkly-outlined eyes wide.

She took his silence as an opportunity to turn her necessary vehemence to Neji. "And _you_," she seethed, "are here on a mission. For goodness' sake, I idolized the Godaime as a child. Do you believe that I wouldn't know whether or not she would approve of your behavior? Neji, I'm not your delivery girl." Back to Gaara. "And I'm not your informant, Gaara. Part of the reason why the scroll was taken is that you two failed to communicate as one in need and one willing to help."

Tenten paused, giving them each another sturdy scowl for emphasis. "Another part of it is that there is a mole, a traitor here. And you are ignoring that entirely. _Now_." Feeling satisfied by the fact that both of them, in their cracked pride and their frustration, looked properly admonished, Tenten breached the topic of requirement. "Who is a potential enemy that the Mist would send to infiltrate the Sand's construction venture?"

Both Gaara and Neji looked at each other at the same time – white-silver eyes on blue-green ones – then looked back at her.

"Well," began Gaara, who suddenly appeared as though he had remembered that Tenten was at least a year older than him and deserved respect for that at least. "I'll have Kankurou interview all of the volunteers from other nations. He should be able to find any possible suspects – no spy stays fully calm in the middle of an operation."

Neji nodded, adding his one and a half cents. "I would like to search the Sand's more shady spots with Lee. I trust you have some?"

The irony in the question had Tenten lifting an eyebrow, but Gaara answered without missing a beat. "Doesn't every village? I'm afraid with the construction starting I won't be able to give you the tour myself. I can assign an official."

"I'll do it." Tenten had expected two blank expressions. What she ended up with was one quizzical glance (Neji) and a glance of unhappiness just short of a glare (Gaara). She only straightened her spine and jutted her chin out at both of them. They may have been exceptional shinobi, but she had seen just as much blood and battle as they – a couple of questionable expressions weren't about to make her back down. "I've been here three years as a volunteer," she went on after just the right amount of silence. "We might as well add 'tour guide' to my list of qualifications when it comes to my team being in town."

Gaara looked like he badly wanted to tell her something but would sooner be killed by his own jinchuuriki than say it in front of Neji. "I've no reason and none of the authority to stop you. You aren't a Suna ninja."

_But you don't like it_. She found herself once again feeling wounded, but Tenten forced out a smile even as she wished she could tell him some things as well. Perhaps she should… But that wasn't what was important now.

Rescuing her from thoughts that may have sent her into depression or madness or both, Lee returned clutching a rolled-up scroll. "Here it is, Gaara-san!" he announced, presenting it with as much grandeur as he could muster. "I assure you, my friend Neji has everything here that you could want to know. Even Hyuuga Hinata-sama contributed some of the clan records for this file."

"My regards to the Hyuuga clan," murmured Gaara in response. The way he said it, however, seemed to fly right over Neji, as though he was as far from the Hyuuga family as one could possibly be.

Ignoring both of them for now, Tenten spoke to Lee. "I want to meet the two of you tomorrow night, in front of your apartment this time. We'll go to the places where a guy can stay inconspicuous while in such a small village."

Lee grinned, clapping her on the shoulders, and Tenten felt for a second like she was still a young Genin and Gai was trying to boost her morale. "I will follow you, of course! I have always wondered what your youthful leadership skills are like!"

Tenten chuckled faintly, then turned around to face the Sand's Kazekage and the pride of the clan Hyuuga. Two hugely powerful men, staring at her in different ways, but conveying the same message:

_We aren't finished here._

"So I'll meet you tomorrow," she concluded decisively, meeting Lee's grin with one of her own – she begged the powers that were for Lee to not notice the anxiety that must have surely coated her eyes. As far as she could tell, her friend remained clueless, and he just kept on smiling, shooting her a Nice Guy pose. "And make sure you dress the part."

"Dress the part?" Neji's question stopped her before she could make a discreet dash out the door. Wanting desperately to sigh, she only looked over her shoulder and eyed them all. Plastering a confident look on her face, Tenten angled her head.

"We're going clubbing."

_To Be Continued…_


	7. Between The Good And Bad

**A/N: **This chapter, by far, has been the most challenging to write. I really felt like I was stretching my wings (and scarily perhaps stretching the characters), but I'm having fun. So all's well that ends well, right? Ehehehehe… _sweatdrop._

**HyuugaTenTenHot **and **AmazingSensation**! Where are yooooou?! I miss you two like whoa and I've not heard from you in a long while. I hope you're still out there…

And I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. Carry on, beautiful readers!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fic.

**Daring To Bleed**

By Nessie

Chapter Seven: Between The Good And Bad

Over an open fire, Tenten was repairing a kunai that was forgotten too long (five seconds) and ruined when Gaara entered her shop late the next day. In the sunlight that blazed through the open windows, she could not help but think that he looked too big for her small store, what with his fluttering black robes and his tall stature.

Sighing a bit at the lost kunai – she was too easily distracted these days – Tenten looked up and directed a smile at him. "Hi, Gaara. Can I help you?"

"You treat me like an ordinary customer now," he intoned quietly, and her eyes widened a little. Had she been doing that? She supposed so; only a month ago, she'd have paid him just as much attention without looking away from her work – because she knew him, because she'd been comfortable – and she probably would have said something more intimate than _can I help you_. "It doesn't matter," Gaara put in shortly before she could form a reply, although the redhead's eyes said very clearly that it certainly did matter. "I've brought you the report from Kakurou's interviews. I don't have time to go over them with you; I have to leave for the construction site in an hour."

"Y-you're going there?" Tenten managed to ask, inwardly feeling confused at why her voice had faltered. At Gaara's hard state, she went on. "It's just…you always based from your office in the past."

"Well, seeing as I _have_ no office at present, I can't think of a difference it would make whether I camped out at the site or not." He seemed to realize Tenten's own self-chastisement about forgetting the fire incident, and his tone gentled a little. "Anyway, take it." He passed her a scroll, Kakurou's report. "I'm sure that you and your…team will be able to put it to use."

"I'll look over it," Tenten promised, feeling absurd for reasons she wasn't certain of. Gaara was making her increasingly nervous as the days passed – she could practically feel the emotional confrontation drawing closer. "Gaara," she murmured when the Kazekage started to head out. Like Neji had, Gaara paused in the entranceway and waited for her to go on. "If I've hurt you, I'm so—"

"How can you hurt me?" Gaara interposed, not sharply but truthfully. He gestured to the gourd on his back. "You can't."

"I just—"

"Don't." He sounded human in that moment, so painfully vulnerable, that Tenten felt an ache for him. But, like a true outstanding shinobi, he kept his guard up. "Don't say things you can't make true." He wouldn't look at her. "You should try to have fun tonight. When you're with them."

She physically flinched. He made it sound like he was being excluded on purpose. "But—"

"Tenten. Don't," he repeated. And before she could make another attempt, to speak to him, sand whisked out of his gourd and ensconced him. When the cloud cleared, there was only trembling hot air and sunlight in the doorway.

* * *

At sunset, she stepped out of the shower. Still dripping, she coated every inch of herself from her neckline to her ankles with a silky, light purple lotion that had been a gift from Ino – she was finding with some self-annoyance that she relied far too much on other females to help her be appropriately feminine. After toweling herself dry, she donned underwear that was most likely too sensible and dealt with her hair, shaking it back to dry into gentle half-curls.

Some strands fell in her face, which proved a bother when she was trying to apply the perfect application of makeup (also difficult, as the number of times she had worn makeup in her life could have been counted on one hand, minus a thumb). The whole facial process took approximately forty minutes, a frustrating time, and she had to dash as she dressed.

A pull here, a zip there (beneath it all was an interesting assortment of items that could effectively put out eyes and draw large quantities of blood), and then she was ready. A final glance in the mirror told her that the buzzed-minded shopping trip with Temari during her first week in the Sand had not been such a stupid idea. She was relieved that she hadn't forgotten lip gloss or jewelry.

When she finally left the house via her bedroom window to jump over the rooftops lest too many villagers see her this way, Tenten didn't hold back a smile, even if it was lined with tension. She had been forcing herself since that afternoon not to think of Gaara.

Not knowing what was going to happen was sometimes an exhilarating thought. And the breeze was cool tonight, with a moon already materializing in the steadily-darkening sky. The stars hung above, seeming to be waiting for her…

* * *

Outside his and Lee's apartment building, Neji felt a presence from above, and swiveled just in time to see a figure descend from the skyline and land on bent knee, right in front of them. His eyebrows arched; he hadn't met any of the other out-of-country kunoichi besides his own female member of Team Gai.

Chocolate-colored ringlets hung in her face, shadowing her features as she crouched. From somewhere behind him, Lee made a sound of curiosity, then gasped as the arrival began to stand up. Her long hair fell back…

And Lee took the words right out of his mouth.

"_TENTEN _whoa!"

Tenten lifted her head, a hand rising in greeting. "Thanks for waiting, guys." She smirked impishly.

_Yes, _the Hyuuga decided, _**impishly**. _Neji felt something hot and unknown grab him by the gut and pull hard. Momentarily winded by it, he struggled to breathe as he assessed her…choice of ensemble.

He noticed first that she had cut her hair. He remembered that night three years ago (and for some reason it was coming back in clearer than full focus) when he'd caught her on the way to the bath houses. Her hair had hung loose then, too, but it had fallen almost to the middle of her vertebrae. Now her mahogany locks ended at her shoulder blades, the lack of weight added a thickness to it that, teamed with the damp waves/curls, gave her an untamed look.

That particular wildness was not lessened any by her clothes; she wore flat-heeled black boots of leather that ran up to just below her knees. Her legs seemed to grow from them and go on forever, or at least until they came to the hem of the devastatingly short-skirted party dress in deep blue. The garment was tight enough that it appeared practically painted on (had she always been that curvaceous?). The bottom of it ran high and the thin-strapped top ran low, with a silver shimmering pendant around her neck bringing attention to the swells of cleavage in one of those underhanded feminine tricks that Neji both admired and despised. Once again, her legs and arms were covered in black fishnet that accentuated the lean muscle in her limbs. The row of diamonds ended in a point over the backs of both hands, held in place by a string around the middle fingers.

It was enough to make him a) use chakra just to get his heart rate under control and b) want badly for her to get back in one of those thick, long, _modest _robes worn so commonly in Suna.

The worst part was that, as alluring as the outfit was, it was so freaking _sensible _in that it would allow her to move well in combat. So Neji had no leverage to argue with and thus was forced to remain without objection.

Tenten's eyes, which appeared huge from a dash of mascara on her lashes, studied him critically for a moment, then turned to Lee. "You both look perfect," she said with a slow nod. She laughed shortly when Lee preened, pulling at the sleeve cuffs of his dark green dress shirt. "Except," she went on after she had taken another look at Neji, "this."

He briefly wondered if his choice of dress – a black, collared suit over a white dress shirt like the kind his uncle used to wear when dealing with western businessman – had been incorrect. Hyuugas, after all, did not go clubbing. But Tenten stepped over to him and, forgoing any kind of warning, reached up to his forehead and removed his _hitai-ate_, pressing the leaf-bearing metal plate into his hand. Neji felt his eyes narrow. "I can't just…"

Tenten shook her head. "You'll look too much like you're working. We _need_ to look like we're there for fun. No symbols."

Neji felt horrifically exposed without the shield of the Konoha insignia to hide his curse seal. Even though the seal had been inactivated under Hinata's orders, it still gave him a certain tidal wave of shame that washed up over him, reminding him he was not from the upper rank, he was beneath, he was not good enough. His hand went up in an instinctive attempt to keep it covered. "But my—"

"A tattoo," Tenten insisted, catching his hand before he could touch his forehead. "You'll blend right in with everyone else." For the shortest instant, she brushed her thumb over the marked flesh on his brow, her fingers dragging momentarily through the ebony of his hair. He'd worn it as loose as hers. Neji felt another vicious tug and discreetly gritted his teeth.

"Is it time to go?" Lee asked from a few feet away. Neji wondered if, somehow, their friend's grin was a little _too _wide. Tenten didn't seem suspicious.

"Yeah," the kunoichi replied, idly flicking her freed hair over her shoulder. She appeared, not uncomfortable, just unused to the change of style. "Remember, though. Not everyone is very polite in this village. Most of the volunteers have gotten testy in the last couple of years – a combination of the heat, the unfamiliarity, and the…" Tenten paused.

"What?" pressed Lee, curious to know how many foreign ninja were in desperate need of rejuvenating lessons in youthful prosperity.

Tenten gave a quick laugh that sounded more nervous than amused. "Sexual frustration." Without waiting for a response (probably the best option, since Lee's mouth dropped open in shock, and Neji's conceited snort would have annoyed her), she took off to lead the way to the club.

* * *

_The Grain _was a waterhole for those with thirsts of a different kind. Restless travelers, rebellious teenagers, victims of mid-life crises, hot-blooded youths, and mainly Suna's foreign volunteers working on the construction project were all the type of crowd you would find there. The place leaked out music like pipes leaked out sewage, and there was always a wave to the surrounding air that beat a dizzying pattern of _come hither, come loose _straight to the brain.

Lee, Neji, and Tenten entered _The Grain _through the front like anyone else. They sat at the bar like anyone else. They ordered drinks like anyone else. _Un_like anyone else, heads turned because of the woman in leather boots, the man in the suit, or the outrageously bright smile that seemingly lit the dim entrance. Unlike anyone else, they sat at the three end stools on the bar rather than merging and mingling in the middle. And unlike anyone else, they ordered the half-hard stuff.

"_Tea_," Neji said sharply before Lee could tell the bartender otherwise. "Or water, if you must. I'll pay for if it's expensive here."

Tenten grinned. "If we get into any trouble, Lee," she promised, "then maybe a couple drops of sake."

But the unflappable Rock Lee only shot her a thumbs-up. "A refreshing water," he assured her, "is just what I need. I intend to play lookout while you and Neji do reconnaissance."

It seemed strange that the hyperactive shinobi was willing to voluntarily downsize his amount of action, but Tenten only nodded, thinking that it would be best for Lee to stay as low-profile as possible. His personality, while lovable, was also highly aggravating to those unused to him, and it was more than plausible that a fight could erupt from a particularly disgruntled patron. That Lee would win any sort of fight was not the point.

"And you should probably get on it," suggested Lee. "We're getting looked at." He didn't tell his friends that it was no wonder, with as eye-catching as the both of them were tonight, intentionally or not.

"Let me just order—"

"I'll get it," Lee insisted, waving Tenten's money down. "Come back in twenty minutes. The faster we find out who's behind the sabotage, the faster Gaara-san can stop being moody."

Tenten refrained from stating that Gaara was normally always moody, even on dates with her. That got her remembering her earlier "conversation" with the Kazekage and she minutely shook her head. He had said to have fun. Whether he had been sincere or not, she was going to do her very damn best.

"Come on, Neji," she called to the genius, not realizing the roughness to her tone or how the addressee's eyebrow rose in question. She sensed him slide obligatorily off his stool and follow her away from the bar.

Neither of them noticed Lee motioning to the bartender. "One more water," he ordered, dutifully keeping his word. "And two of the strongest stuff you have. _Please_."

The space between the main entrance and the bar was essentially a dance floor. Although any type of dancing was not a highly favored past-time in either Konoha or Suna, it was apparently an adored activity in other countries. Though there were little to no _hitai-ate _to be seen, Tenten recognized quite a few ninja from the Snow that were energetically…was that dancing? It looked more like gyrating than anything else. The same went for people hailing from the Rain, Grass, and even the Bear lands.

The only person who wasn't busy trying to get as physically close to a dance partner as possible was Kiwamura Sanosuke, who was leaning against a fall wall, looking upon the intoxicated crowd with a semi-focused gaze; visible color to his cheeks indicated that he was probably less than sober.

Tenten realized in that moment that she and Neji had two options – they could either get distastefully drunk so to blend in with the non-dancers in _The Grain_, or they could become "dancers" themselves. As it would be nigh impossible to carry out an information-gathering mission while floating, they were truly left with only _one _option.

Angling her head at Neji, she caught his pale eyes and made sure her face was arranged as take-me-seriously as it could be. "Press against me," she commanded.

* * *

Neji blinked. He had seen the multitude of couples practically making clothed love on the floor just as well as she had – and probably better, considering his use of doujutsu – but the last thing he had expected was to be told to imitate them. The best response he was able to manage in a decent amount of time was, "Do what?"

Tenten's eyes (which were exceptionally large and exceptionally bright due to the liner and gold-tinted shadow surrounding them) narrowed at him. Not bothering to warn him, she shot out both her arms and effectively trapped him in iron-hard hold, dragging him to her. He collided with her, his mouth dropping on impact with surprise. His hands went to her shoulders as he automatically tried to maintain a certain amount of distance.

She looked immediately annoyed by the defensive action. "Come _on_, Neji, we're both adults now. We can't stick out like this."

Since she apparently had all the answers, he felt no shame in asking, "What do you want me to do, precisely?"

At this, Tenten smirked a little bit. "Well…from the looks of it, you have to move. Just…_move_." She slid one arm off of his shoulder to wrap it around his waist, and he felt his own flesh tingle beneath the slight press of her fingers.

He was no dancer; that was true. Just when he thought Tenten was going to berate him for imitating a tall, muscled _boulder_, Lee saved him by bounding over and invading their space.

Lee saved him? Neji hadn't expected to ever think _that_ in his life.

"Hey!" called Lee over the floor-pounding music. "I needed to warn you two! I'm getting some information out of the bartender – I think he's so youthful he can't keep a secret. But don't come back there in case he gets shy with you next to me. 'Kay?"

Neji felt his head spin. Lee was actually getting someone to open up to him after ten minutes of sitting around drinking water? "Fine," he agreed. Four inches away from his face, Tenten's head nodded. He felt loose strands of brown hair brush his neck, making him forget the improbability of Lee being a reliable interrogator.

"And so you don't get thirsty later," Lee went on, "drink up!" He held up two squat glasses of something pale and thin. It looked like cloudy water, but when both Tenten and Neji drank it down, they both grimaced a little from the bitter taste. "The bartender says it's the best in the house!" Lee added, taking both glasses from them and returning hastily back his stool.

"It's that's the best," Tenten laughed airily, "then I don't want anything else to drink," she told Neji.

Neji felt a slow burn start up in the pit of his stomach. Was it the drink? Perhaps the alcohol, which he could only assume was mild – didn't sit well with him. But if nothing else, the surrounded ninja had seen that both he and Tenten were not anti-drinkers and a few of the eyes turned away from them.

The music changed then. Tenten's arms suddenly tightened around him. And she stood on tiptoe to speak in his ear over the din. "This song played when I first came here."

Neji started to feel like his didn't mind the fact that people was bumping and grinding on every side of them. Tenten's knee started bouncing with the beat, and he hooked his hands over her narrow waist without thinking. "I wouldn't peg you as one for the bar scene."

"Well, I had to make friends, didn't I? This is where most of the volunteers all come at night, after work." There were twin spots of pink on her cheeks, but Neji chalked it up to the horrid heat in the place. Tenten, he recalled from a mission success party years ago, had an exceptional tolerance for alcohol. "I know at least one person from every volunteering country."

"Impressive," he told her. Neji noticed the way a particular curl of her hair clung to her neck and felt rather hypnotized by it. What had he been praising? He couldn't remember. "Do you dress like this every…every…" What was that word?

"Time," piped Tenten who had become suddenly interested in the curve of his jaw line.

"Time," he agreed, nodding in thanks of her thoughtful supply. He was starting to realize that they had somehow walked away from the crowd, to a wall, and they were now approaching a corner.

"No. This is the first…?"

A shadowy, empty corner.

"Time," filled in Neji. Her hand was in his hair, her nails raking gently over his scalp. That actually felt…good. She had told him earlier that they were now both adults – the Hyuuga was experiencing a brand new realization of just how adult she was.

"Time."

Neji's hands gripped her hips, and Tenten's back hit the corner. Everything that made sense seemed to drip out of their respective consciousnesses. He leaned down closer to her – she carried the scent of freshly-bloomed violets…

Using leverage only a trained kunoichi could find, she swapped places with him – he was now against the wall – and in the same move, brought his head down and kissed him.

Kissed him deeply, feverishly, all of those words that described thoughtless, wordless _hunger _for connection.

Neji's last truly thinking-filled thought of the evening was that he had been waiting for this. Somehow, ever since she had beaten him in their sparring match two days earlier, he had known that it would happen, that things were out of their hands. Even geniuses and mistresses of weapons fell to the power of attraction.

Sexual frustration indeed. He kissed her back, pulling her tightly to his chest until he was certain that he could feel every contour her body had to offer. And then it blurred until it all melded together; violets, hunger, frustration, adults…and then she pulled away.

"Tenten," he growled, feeling her shift to look up at him.

His eyes on hers. Silver on gold.

"Neji," she murmured, voice husky from the kiss that still simmered between them. "Let's go." Her hands edged down the length of his arms to link with his fingers.

"Where?" He didn't bother looking at her; he knew already that she had begun to smile, and it was good enough for him. The curl still clung to her neck, and he ducked his head to close his lips over the smooth inch of skin. He had wondered for years how she tasted.

"My place."

Neji's head shot up, nearly hitting her chin with his forehead, and he directed a hard stare into her gaze. Her eyes were wide now, shocked by her own initiative and still somewhat dreamy from the drink…but alert. She knew what she was talking about.

And so did Neji.

Wordlessly, he nodded, taking a better purchase of her hand. A little of the nervousness cleared from Tenten's face, and she held him tightly to whisper: "Follow me."

As they went, half-stepping and half-chasing each other out the back door of _The Grain_, only two pairs of eyes remained on them. One was shining guiltily for what had been seen and what had been caused. The other watched calculatingly, planning a response to this new turn of events.

Outside, the moon rose to its highest point, shining over an arsenal shop. A weapons mistress guided a genius upstairs.

_To Be Continued…_


	8. What They Share

**A/N**: This is the chapter I've had in my mind since I started writing this fic, and it will actually explain the title. I hope everyone enjoys; this is rather the turning point in the story. I also want to say thanks to you guys – you're so supportive, it's like I have a little team of cheerleaders for this story. You make it enjoyable to write for this fandom!

**Warning: **A little limey at the beginning here, but nothing too graphic.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fic.

**Daring To Bleed**

By Nessie

Chapter Eight: What They Share

"_You want me to be in love with you."_

People, Tenten was beginning to learn, tended to shy away from the truth. Confessions were objects of horror; secrets laid bare were reasons to run away without a backward glance. It was so much easier on the mind to take in lies and falsities…things that hurt you were oftentimes less difficult to get through than things that would ultimately make you happy. Because to be happy, you must first get through all of the hardship, tolerate the entire struggle, and fight against everyone and everything trying to keep you from real euphoria.

She had told Neji that she had wanted _him_ to _want_ to be in love with her. That had been no lie. But the fact that she had said no to his statement of wanting him to be in love with her (no strings attached) had been possibly the biggest fabrication she had ever created.

And she was starting to realize, when she and Neji could hardly make it up the stairway in her apartment for want of each other, that she had never felt more euphoric in her life.

His hands were seemingly everywhere all at once, tugging at her clothes, mouthing at her skin, starting fires and flames wherever he touched. Yet she felt no pressure or pushing from him. It was similar to her experience with Gaara the night before the Hyuuga's arrival, except Tenten herself was much more active. What nails she had raked over the taught flesh of his muscled back – the black jacket he'd had on had been lost three seconds after entering the shop, and Tenten was now in the process of undoing the buttons on the white dress shirt he had worn beneath it. Her fingers fumbled with the frustratingly miniscule obstacles and, when she made on unconscious grunt of distress, Neji laughed…a quiet, deep chuckle that reverberated in his throat and sent tingles along every nerve she had.

She was eventually motivated into getting him to continue up the stairs (the angle of a step was digging into her back and despite the distractingly pleasurable feel of his lips on the underside of her jaw, it was still uncomfortable), and they half-dragged, half-pushed each other to the bedroom.

"Neji…" This was an all too familiar scene, although the combination of heat and desire in the room was overriding any previous memories that might have been trying to make their way to the front of her mind. "The bed—"

"Shh," he whispered, but the total lack of alertness in his eyes said that he had no idea what he was uttering. "Tenten, you—"

She cut him off with her mouth, knowing that any sentences they might attempt to form would be nothing more than meaningless babble. She could hardly _think _in this proximity, when he was close enough to notice how his skin carried the scent of either wind or rain, she wasn't sure which. He smelled, she thought, like the sky.

And then he plunged one hand into her loose dark hair as the other began to divest her of any garments, kissing her all the while, and any shred of mental activity Tenten had been holding onto now slipped irretrievably from her grasp. She hurried to catch up with him.

It wasn't about clothes coming off – it was about barriers coming down. Each inch of the mighty wall they had built between each other even in the years they have been on a team now fell away, leaving only naked souls. The internal fire that spurred them on wasn't solely fueled by lust; it was like a purifying burn from head to toe, heart to heart.

And then, as though realizing this, Neji did something that surprised her. He slowed down, kissed her deeply, and with agonizing slowness, backed her toward her bed until her thighs hit the side of the mattress and they went tumbling down together. Features and details vanished when he became only a shadow above her as bright moonlight sifting through the window silhouetted him. His sterling eyes appeared to glow as he guided both of them up the mattress toward the pillows so she could rest her head. The new sensation of his silken hair falling over her damp, bare skin had her gasping and squeezing her eyes shut.

And then he went still, a sharp intake of breath causing her to look at him again. Neji was sitting up, and, desperate for the contact to remain, she straightened with him.

"Are you okay?" Her voice sounded hoarse, and Tenten couldn't quite get her breath. She had a sinking feeling that…

Neji lifted his left hand, which had previously been caressing the top of her head, and showed her what had caused him to halt.

A tiny drop of blood, no bigger than a pinprick's wound, glistened from the pad of his fourth finger. Neji glanced from it to her, his lips quirking into a smirk. He moved before she did, reaching beneath the pillow his hand had gone under and pulling out the kunai.

Tenten could have smacked herself in the head; how had she managed to let that happen two times in a row? But there was a difference this time. For Neji, there was no shield of natural elements to protect him. Closer inspection showed her a display of scars all of his body, some she remembered and recognized, some she didn't. He was bleeding.

Gaara, she realized in an instant, couldn't be harmed, couldn't bleed. And Tenten began to understand that she had only ever wanted this person, this genius or shinobi – this _man _– who would bleed every drop of blood he had for whatever was important to him.

The comprehension distracted her so completely that Tenten didn't notice when he let the kunai drop to the floor below. Words leapt to her tongue. "Neji, I'm—"

"Shh," he murmured, this time knowing full well what he was saying. "It's nothing." Neji met her gaze and, nearly bringing tears to her eyes from the unexpected tenderness, smiled. "I would suffer more than that to be with you." And he brought his lips to hers, lowering her back down to the pillows.

Confessions, Tenten thought before everything he did wiped her mind totally clean, may be difficult to hear. But then there are ones that are undoubtedly, memorably worth it.

* * *

The wind blew colder as the night wore on. The mostly bare section of the desert that was currently being used as a site for brand new village in the Sand, give or take a year or two from now, was lit only by a few tall lantern posts and campfires built here and there in the area.

Gaara, Kazekage of Suna, stood outside the glowing warmth of each of them, preferring to stand in the discomforting cold of darkness, where, he still sometimes felt, he belonged. No matter how much time passed and whatever events took place to convince him otherwise, Gaara could never permanently maintain an optimistic attitude about himself. He was no Uzumaki Naruto, he couldn't keep up a constant smile, and he was unable to tell everyone that he was fine.

Some people could handle that, some couldn't. Gaara very rarely cared.

And, it seemed, in the instances he did care what someone thought, that person apparently couldn't be bothered to care for him back. Typical.

How odd to think only a short while ago, he had been able to go see a face that only ever gave him a smile; listen to a voice that spoke to him using kind, understanding words. And she would have come to him, in those times, here in the cold and the dark.

Behind him, feet made prints in the sand, and Gaara could hear every individual grain as it was stepped upon. Jerking around, his pulse moved into a gallop, and part of him inexplicably dared to hope.

"Now it's been some time since I've seen you this pensive." Kankurou's black-clad form greeted him, his ever-so-cocky grin present, of course, as he approached Gaara. "And you appear a little jumpy."

Gaara watched his older brother sit beside him out of the corner of his eye, remembering a time when Kankurou would have been too frightened to get so near to him. "For a moment, I thought it was someone else."

"Yeah, I could see that from twenty feet away." Kankurou passed the leader a thermos of warm tea. "Kind of cold tonight," he intoned to fill the silence, then caught sight of the scroll the other man held. "What are you looking at?"

Handing him the scroll, Gaara's eyes narrowed. "The information on the Mist ninja from the Konoha shinobi."

"That Hyuuga Neji did this, huh? I remember him from our first Chuunin Exam." Kankurou's eyes went distant as he skimmed the scroll's contents. He was doubtlessly recalling the fight from years ago. "This stuff's impressive, just like his combat skills."

"The file claims that the Land of Mist's economy could theoretically drop were this country to become more successful, even on a tourism level." Gaara tapped the parchment where it listed several points. "Even if we could form the land in a way that would make travel through it smoother, it's possible that the Land of Wind would achieve growth just by serving as an enormous trade route."

"And since most of that country's income is based on its shipping service, we would potentially take away all of their business." Kankurou nodded slowly. "I get it. Not to mention that the Land of Water is already the poorest country around."

"I've considered trying to organize a partnership with the Mist village in the past," stated Gaara, rolling up the scroll and placing it on the inside lining of his right sleeve. "But their government is corrupt; even the daimyo from this country has contacted me in the past, saying that the Water's daimyo is not open to splitting rewards."

Kankurou snorted, as though he had expected the fact. "Who is, these days?"

"Did you require something?" asked Gaara at last, suspecting that his brother did not come only to serve him tea.

At the question, Kankurou lost some of his calm exterior. "Well…" Scratching the back of his head, he took a breath. "I got a letter from Temari in Konoha. It was addressed to both of us, actually."

Never able to comprehend Kankurou's knack for edging around the point of his words, Gaara lifted an eyebrow to prompt him.

"And she…well, she says she'll be staying in Konoha longer than expected." Kankurou's eyes softened strangely. "She's with Nara Shikamaru. They're getting married, Gaara."

At first, Gaara didn't react in a way that could be seen by an observer. "You don't seem surprised," he murmured.

Kankurou shook his head. "I mean…she's gone back to Konoha quite a bit in the last year, hasn't she? She applies to work with Nara a lot – and she had this period where she talked about him annoyingly; saying she wanted to defeat him and all. So I – I kind of knew…"

Gaara crossed his arms and stared at the flicker of a distant fire. "I obviously didn't."

"You've been distracted," offered Kankurou. "Temari knew about you, anyway. She trained all the time with Tenten-san."

Both of Gaara's hand tightened on his biceps, and he didn't bother to hide the way his jaw hardened. Kankurou looked on warily.

"You know, Gaara…with the members of her old team here and everything…don't you think that maybe—"

Kankurou didn't get the chance to finish speaking, however, because out of nowhere, came a huge _whooshing _sound, like the noise just before a vicious sandstorm. But the conditions were wrong for a sandstorm; the wind wasn't strong enough.

And sandstorms weren't accompanied by giant masses of fog sweeping over them instantaneously.

The two brothers of the Sand leapt to their feet, but everything was invisible by the time their balance was gained. "_Move_!" Gaara ordered at once, shouting over the startled cries of contractors whose fires had all gone out. "Get your puppets, protect the workers!" By the time the few other on-guard ninja went into action, he was already creating a massive hand from the sand at his feet, preparing to swipe away the fog. "Don't get near the main village!"

* * *

Sunlight trickled over Tenten's bed like water trickles over stones. Neji was not surprised he was awake before Tenten; he habitually woke up sooner than absolutely everyone, including the Hyuuga compound servants, and with perfect instant alertness. This morning, however, he suffered from an unexpected grogginess clouding at the edges of his vision. He supposed it came from the sated feeling he'd fallen asleep with. For the first time in three years, he had actually felt at ease, with Tenten folded against his chest.

She slumbered lightly, he was sure. She had always possessed a constant readiness, the proof of which had been reinforced by the kunai he'd found beneath her pillow last night. Neji put effort into keeping his movements – he propped himself up on an elbow to look down at her – undetectable, his uneven breathing silent.

Tenten looked as peaceful as he could ever remember seeing her. She had inched away for more stretching space sometime in the night but had kept a hand tucked under his arm throughout. Her hair was a thick flow of waves and curls fanned over her pillow, wonderfully tangled from Neji's fingers running through it a million times. He fingered a strand now, rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger to feel its softness. Her lips were parted just slightly in sleep, tempting him, but Neji resisted. No use waking her now when it would only be a few—

She stirred before the Hyuuga could finish his thought. She wasn't like a princess revived or anything quite so dainty – no startled blinking or gasp. She woke the way he did, as expert ninjas do, with immediate knowledge of where she was and what had happened, even if it did appear to Neji that she was also not quite in top form (was it that drink?).

The way she raised, however, was something completely different. She sat up in a way so fluid he actually found himself surprised by it, and knew that part of him hadn't realized how much Tenten had matured in the last three years; she was half-kunoichi, an expert warrior, and half-woman, someone who could play and laugh and seduce in a fashion that allured even Hyuugas.

Neji didn't even realize he was smiling when Tenten looked at him, although he was all-too-aware of the fulfilled, completely pleased expression she wore. "Good morning," he said first.

Her smile widened into a grin. "Is that how you greet each other at the compound?" she asked, a chuckle ringing in the room. "So formal."

"How do you expect me to tell you?" he asked, amused. Tenten had always thought the Hyuuga airs too traditional and unnecessary.

"Well…" She answered the question by leaning forward and planting him with a short, soft kiss that still contained a spark. Neji's hand lifted seemingly of its own accord to brush over her naked back, diving in and out of her untamed tresses. "Kind of like that," Tenten murmured coyly, obviously enjoying their current position.

"I'll learn," he replied, rather fond of it himself. "I've not lived at the compound for a year anyway."

"ANBU," she nodded, reflecting. "I think I always knew it would happen. Hinata so believed in you."

Neji recalled what Lee had told him about Tenten encouraging his cousin to set him free of the Hyuuga limitations. When it came down to it, he owed his success to the weapons mistress. Suddenly driven, either by gratefulness or affection or both, he took Tenten's arm and pushed her down with gentle force. She landed on the downy mattress with a warm laugh, raising her arms to him welcomingly. Touching his marked forehead to her smooth one, he closed his eyes and just held her for nearly a full minute before murmuring to her.

"Tenten."

He felt her chest rise against him on a deep inhalation. Her eyes, when he looked in them, were amber pools of comfort, of understanding, and everything he'd ever desired and hadn't been given growing up.

"I…" Neji was briefly distracted by the luxurious feeling her fingers ghosting over his left hip. "I think I—"

The door, which had been slammed shut by one of them the night before, burst open without warning and rattled as it hit the wall.

"NEJI! TENTEN!"

Tenten reacted first, grabbing fistfuls of the askew sheet hanging off the foot of the bed and tugging it up over her head with a high-pitched sound of distress. Neji himself was so startled (it had been at least a decade since he had been so focused on one thing to not hear footfalls on the stairs) that he actually half-tumbled off the bedside furthest from the door, but then kept himself there to hide his nakedness from the unannounced intruder.

When his white eyes and one of Tenten's brown-gold ones peeked out, they went swiftly from stares to glares. Tenten groaned, but Neji at least managed to snarl.

"Lee. What the damn _hell_—"

"Come _on_!" Lee, half-dressed himself (he was without his thick grey vest), wore an urgent, fearful expression. "We have to go now!"

"What's the matter?" questioned Tenten, highly concerned now. "Did something—"

"There's been another attack," Lee told them gravely. "At the new construction site. Kankurou-san and Gaara-san were there, and some other ninja, but it…"

Tenten bit her lip, pulling the sheet around her as she climbed out of bed. "Wait downstairs for two minutes. I swear that's all it'll take."

"And prepare to give me what you know on the damage report!" called Neji as the bowl-haired man tore down to the first floor.

When he was gone, Tenten let the sheet fall to the floor and went to her closet, picking up the forgotten kunai on her way. Neji reached for what of his clothes had been shed in the bedroom last night. He had just found his shirt beneath the window sill when Tenten turned to him, fully dressed, with tears brimming in her eyes.

"Neji…" She swallowed, her throat flashing anxiously. "I—"

He took her hand with one of his, buttoning his shirt with the other. "Later," Neji promised, then released her and flew out of the room. "Right now, I have to make sure I haven't failed."

"Failed who?" Her voice drifted down to him from the top of the stairs.

His hands balled into fists, suddenly wishing he had his _hitai-ate _with which to cover his forehead. "Anyone."

_To Be Continued…_


	9. A Step Too Far

**A/N**: Chapter nine! It which a lot of things get resolved, but not everything. I suppose I should announce here that there is only **one **more chapter left. And it's exciting because I'll have actually finished something people like and…yeah, I'm just gonna leave these notes for the final chapter. I tend to babble, sorry!

Onto the fic, shall we?

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fic.

**Daring To Bleed**

By Nessie

Chapter Nine: A Step Too Far

Tenten's mind was no fuller of thoughts than a cotton ball. Rather, it was _similar_ to a cotton ball; fuzzy and thick. She tried to listen to Lee tell Neji what he knew about the attack and its results, but worry kept her from staying focused, and when she finally managed to order her kunoichi listening skills to kick in, Lee was at the end of his report.

"…heard that only one worker has a serious injury, and the day's work was not even half destroyed. That's something to be optimistic about," concluded the Green Beast, forcing out a smile that was not very youthful. "It seems our sabotaging ninja are not very organized."

"Then it's possible," replied Neji, going into full ANBU captain mode, "that they're not Mist-nin specifically, but missing-nin. Yet Konoha's reports on the Land of Water's various deserters tell of no one with enough brains to work as a leader."

Tenten kept out of their discussion. It seemed that in her absence, Neji and Lee had developed a new method for working together (something she used to believe would be impossible without her help). She felt that she had no right to try and add to it – not that she had anything to add being so long out of Konoha's information hookups.

The scene that met them when they made it to the construction site was an unanticipated one. Tenten didn't know what she had expected. Worse, probably. In contrast to how Lee had made it sound when he had so shockingly exploded into her bedroom fifteen minutes ago, there was minimal harm done to both land and bodies. A number of scaffoldings had been damaged beyond repair, but many still stood and even now there were some workers hammering and digging, doing what they were here for.

It made sense that things were not so bad, however. Suna had been much more prepared for surprise attacks ever since the bombarding by the Akatsuki member Deidara so long ago. Gaara was not about to put himself or anyone else in a position to be kidnapped or otherwise.

In the distance, Tenten saw Kankurou speaking to someone who carried himself with an air of authority, most likely the head contractor. Both men looked grave, but she saw only the contractor's vague hand gestures and Kankurou's mouth forming the word "brother." She wondered where Gaara had gone in the middle of all this.

But she didn't wonder long.

"Your mission was to come and protect these people." The familiar voice came from behind the three formerly known as Team Gai, and the little group turned around to see Gaara, standing as rooted as an oak tree. His arms were folded, legs spread in his usual stance. The loose material of his black robes flapped in the harsh wind, which also whipped his hair, looking starkly red this morning.

"Gaara?" There was a strange light, completely separate from that of the sun, glinting from deep in his blue-green eyes, and it gave her pause.

He appeared to be talking directly to Neji who stood between Lee and Tenten. "You did not do as ordered. Konoha ninja are apparently not at all as reliable as all of their Hokages lead other nations to believe. Trustworthy." Catching everyone off-guard, his eyes flicked to Tenten. "That's what you're supposed to be."

Tenten had no time to formulate a decent response before Neji took a step forward. "You don't have a right to judge," he told the Kazekage. In actuality, saying this to such a higher authority figure was considered very out of line.

"Is that because you carry the name of Hyuuga? That clan as immaculate as their doujutsu." A sneer curled Gaara's lips, causing him to look disturbingly like he had when controlled by the beast Shuukaku at the Chuunin exam. But no one could detect any unnatural chakra radiating from him, and thus it was Gaara and no one else acting. "For an ANBU captain whose services are so highly recommended," snarled Gaara, "I expected far better from you."

"Considering the circumstances—"

"The circumstances are that my hired hands, the people you were assigned here specifically to defend, were attacked last night, and despite the immediate word sent into the village, only Rock Lee showed up. I can't imagine what you were…" Gaara's voice trailed off as he realized all of sudden that Neji clothes, wrinkled and hurriedly thrown on, were clubbing clothes – clothes he'd worn the night before. His gaze switched slowly from the hard-jawed Neji to the wide-eyed Tenten. "You…"

The situation was becoming dangerous, Tenten realized. "Gaara, please," she began. "The damage here is certainly—"

But there were no open ears for her, and instead he started to step toward Neji. "What am I paying you for?" demanded Gaara aggressively. "You've handed me a file, one that was originally _stolen_, and potentially in the hands of the enemy! And it was all to distract me while you two could betray me behind my back!"

At this, Lee rushed forward. "No, no! Gaara-sama, if there is blame, it should go to me!"

Shocking everyone in the vicinity, Gaara pushed Lee away with mighty force, and the green-clad man went flying despite the difference in both men's size. He hit the ground and did not go noticed again by the Sand leader. Gaara's face jerked to the side to look down at Tenten standing a few feet away. "How was it?" he asked aggressively. "While I was out here fighting for everyone here, how was it to have him with you, _inside you—_"

He wasn't permitted to finish his vulgar sentence, for at that moment, Neji had hauled off and punched him in the left cheek, completely without technique and fully with rage.

"Neji!" Tenten shrilled, stunned. She had never heard Gaara talk that way, nor had she seen Neji react so strongly. The Hyuuga was half-bent, his right fist still taught, panting from emotion rather than exertion. Horrified, Tenten turned to the felled Gaara.

He was laughing...or emitting some kind of sound like it. Sand had formed small clouds at his elbows, which had taken most of his weight, and his whole body shook with unsettling, mirthless laughter. Sitting up, he raised a hand to his lips, and brushed a thin trickle of blood from the corner of it with his thumb. "And that's it?" he queried, his voice pitching oddly. "I suppose that's all I should expect from an orphaned, curse-marked, futureless _branch_ house member!"

And then the sparks went off. Neji pulled his hand up, flattening it, as chakra lit him up like a torch. The veins at his eyes protruded with the newly-activated Byakugan. Millions of grains of sand were already rising from the Gourd strapped to Gaara's back. As the Kazekage got to his feet, the noontime sun had reached the middle of the sky.

They both advanced at the same time.

An ejaculation of "_Shit_!" was audible from twenty feet away as Kankurou saw what was happening. "Hey, Gaara!"

"Neji!" cried Lee at the same time. But both of the opponents seemed fully disinclined to hear anything outside of their little world of combat.

Neji hit first, simply because Gaara's sand had not fully come together for his Ryusa Bakuryu, but even as the redhead was being hit with Hakke Kusho, a giant tidal wave of sound manipulated by Gaara was rising behind Neji.

Tenten, half-frozen from the paralyzing sight before her, suddenly had her fuzzy mind clear when it was wrenched by a memory. And unlike each of her memories from the past few days, this one had nothing to do with Neji. She was recalling the time Haruno Sakura, suffering from insomnia after spending thirty-one straight hours at the Konoha hospital, told her all about how she had tried to run between a Rasengan-wielding Uzumaki Naruto and a Chidori-charged Uchiha Sasuke. The way she had described it…

"_It was like I was running straight to the very end of me."_

Barely conscious of what she was doing, Tenten lifted a foot. Then another.

"_There was torture on my left and agony on my right."_

The walking progressed into running. The sand did nothing to hinder her, nor did Lee's muffled shouts.

"_I knew that I could be hurt by both of them…those two who I cared for so much…"_

"Neji! Gaara!" No response came; her voice went up, pushed out by fear and regret and love. She surged forward.

"_And it didn't matter that I could die."_

"NEJI! GAARA!"

"_As long as they lived."_

She was faintly aware of her hair coming loose from her buns, and grains of sand falling into it like water from a shower. There was horrendous heat coming at her from both sides, heat that would make the sun envious, and then – done. Over like it had never happened.

Tenten had closed her eyes without noticing it. She could feel forces still pulsing around her, the rhythm of it the beating steadiness of a sleeping person's heart, and it lulled her. Soon, it was dark within dark, and she never felt it when she hit the ground.

Her eyelids parted for mere seconds to see a wall of sand falling back and a hand that had been only moments ago used in a series of Gentle Fists, reached down to smooth hair away from her cheek.

"Tenten?"

White eyes…and then more black.

* * *

She dreamed, thinking in sleep that it was actually a memory flashing through her mind. A man she had known for nearly three years, one who never got close to anyone and kept to himself. She had never paid him enough attention but gave him the same respect and admiration as everyone else…after all, his skill with electric engineering and the help he had given Suna was enough to earn him all the privacy he wanted.

"_Isn't that why your village sent those two shinobi here?"_

When her eyes opened, the overhead lantern flickered straight to her brain and filled her head with a pain strong enough to make her feel instantly nauseous. Tenten reflexively turned her head, moaning a little against the pillow on her bed.

"_I have informed my village's leaders that I will stay here as long as my services are required." _

It took another moment of stabbing, orange-white light for her to register that she was not the only occupant in the room – _her_ room, as it happened – and she struggled to identify on the man leaning against the wall beside her window. The glass pane was glowing gold, the sun outside setting. Tenten noted that she had been out for at least seven hours. Her brown eyes focused on the figure, and it was surprisingly Gaara instead of Neji. The symbol for "love" on his forehead was married by the narrowed expression on his face, and spots of blood dotted his cheek.

Before she could inquire in his presence, he spoke first. "I don't suppose you want to see me." The frown on his lips deepened with his frankness. "But I feel compelled to apologize."

"No," she murmured, her voice cracking shamefully. "Gaara—"

"I had no right to assume you were in love with me. Actually, I didn't even do that." He pushed away from the wall, hair shimmering in the sunset gleaming behind him, and approached her bed with a deliberate slowness so she understood he meant absolutely no harm. "I knew…ever since the day you arrived here...that the only person you've loved is Hyuuga Neji."

Tenten shut her eyes again, temples throbbing. That Gaara had actually spoken the ANBU captain's first name spoke of something, and something that had clenched on the day Lee and Neji had shown up in the Sand now relaxed. She could have groaned from the relief. "I didn't…" Her voice wasn't very solid, and she cleared her throat before continuing. "I never intended to lead you on, Gaara."

"Do you think I don't know that? I latched on," said Gaara without hesitation. "I know I did. Two things made me realize it. One was that you were with him last night." He went on before she could interrupt, "And you're too honorable a woman to commit yourself that way without the deepest of feeling. Another," and here Gaara's frown seemed to lighten, "was the message I received on my sister's engagement."

Tenten blinked. Then, despite herself, she grinned. "I know. Temari tells _me _some things, too, you know." A definite air of lightheartedness in the room now, rather than the suffocating aura that had previously choked them both.

Gaara bowed his head. "Forgive me." He jerked upward when her fingers reached out from beneath the covers of her bed to touch his hand.

Tenten was smiling up at him. "I already have." Silence reigned for a moment, and then she pulled away. "Neji?"

"Neither of us are hurt, and…" Gaara's face was strained but retained its usual rigidity. "Fortunately, neither are you. Not a scratch, just—"

"Just the force of two extremely powerful chakras knocked me clean out." Tenten felt slightly mortified. To think she'd been unconscious for so long from the effect of their _chakra_! Gaara's alone wouldn't have done it, but Neji had apparently strengthened enough in their time apart that their power combined had sent her into a brief coma. "What about Lee?"

"He's fine. I'm sorry for—." At Tenten's sharp look, Gaara stopped apologizing. "He's out buying you some dumplings. He said it would be 'just what you need'."

Tenten became acutely aware that she hadn't eaten today and nodded with a grin. "Lee always knows. And he likes to be involved." But then, slowly, her smile slackened, and she stared at the ceiling. Her own words had triggered her to remember others.

"_Your mind has not been swayed by your involvement with the Kazekage?"_

"Gaara," she murmured, her voice thickening. "In the time I was sleeping, did you find out anything else on the ninja trying to sabotage the construction project?"

"No." A note of anger infiltrated his tone, and she noticed now that the Suna leader's fists were clenched. "Despite having guards and spies, there's been nothing to indicate who—"

"Yes, there has," cut in Tenten, and she sat up. An immediately feeling of dizziness, however, had her falling back against her headboard. Gaara steadied her with a hand on her shoulder. "I'm fine," she insisted. "I just remembered something. There's a shinobi here, from the Land of Waterfall. Kiwamura—"

"Sanosuke," Gaara finished, astonishing her. "He's the only one here from the Waterfall, so he's hard to forget. What of him?"

"Question him. Scare him." Tenten looked up at him, and the determination shining in her eyes had Gaara reacting without inquiry. "I'm almost certain he's responsible."

Gaara stared at her for a moment longer, then nodded, not bothering to ask what made her so certain. "I'll go. Stay here, rest. I'll be sending Hyuuga Neji in. He—" But at that moment, the door opened and Neji was there, looking between then. "He only let me talk to you if he was standing behind the door."

_Typical_, Tenten thought, nearly smiling. But there was no time for anything less than seriousness now. "Hurry, please." She didn't want any more harm done to this country or its citizens.

Gaara moved to the door, but he paused before going through it. "Tenten," he said, glancing back. He ignored Neji, who stood at his side. "Thank you for caring, if only for a while." Squaring his shoulders, he did not wait for her to respond, and he stepped out with his robes billowing behind him.

When he was gone, Neji shut the door and stayed with his back to her for a long moment, his hand remaining on the knob. Tenten blinked, concerned, at his back. "Neji?" she called softly. "Are you—"

He turned around, and the look in his eyes halted any speech. With a slow grace she had admired in him for years, the genius stepped toward her. With each even stride, Tenten felt something begin to well up inside of her. Neji lowered himself to the edge of her bed and lifted a hand to cup her cheek, pulling her toward him.

"My fault," he murmured, befuddling her. His eyes slid shut as he struggled with his emotions.

Tenten's lips curved into a smile. "This? No. Neji, I'm fine." But he wrapped his other arm around her and pulled her toward him until her chin rested on his shoulder and she could feel his hair – still a bit sandy from the battle – brush against her ear.

It had been years since they had shared this kind of peace – it had nothing to do with tension or combat or training or even lust. There was only quiet understanding. The last time she had experienced this, thought Tenten, was just after she had been defeated by Temari in the Chuunin Exam and he had come to stand beside her, saying nothing, giving only support.

She swallowed and buried her face in the soft flesh of his neck. His arms held her all the tighter.

When she spoke, Tenten surprised not only Neji but herself as well.

"I want to go home."

Neji pushed her away just enough to look her in the eyes – silver on gold once more. He said nothing, only nodded wordlessly, and then kissed her. A seal on an agreement; they both understood what she really meant.

_I want to go home with you._

_To Be Continued…_


	10. Elaborate Lives

**A/N**: Welcome to the final chapter. I would do my thank-you's here, but I'm sure you're all anxious to read the ending (more of an epilogue feel, if you ask me), so all my notes as well as the announcement of an upcoming project is at the end of the chapter. Enjoy the finale!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fic.

**Daring To Bleed**

By Nessie

Chapter Ten: Elaborate Lives

The volunteers working in the Land of Wind had been separated within Suna according to their place of origin. Since Tenten was the only one from Konoha, she had acquired a place more spacious than, say, those from the Grass, who had come in a group of eight and all lived together in one building.

And because Kiwamura Sanosuke was the only citizen hailing from the Waterfull, he too had a residence all to himself, and he used it to complete his work. The lower story was used as his home, holding a bedroom, bathroom, and small cooking area, and gave no sign that he was anything more than a normal, if superbly talented, shinobi. Upstairs…

Gaara's keen eyes took in every nook and cranny; small lanterns burning gold-red oil flickered over the "workshop" on the second floor of the housing he had provided for Kiwamura. Blueprints leaned in the corners and dangled off the edges of a multiplicity of tables set up all over the large room. Weapons – some he recognized to be Tenten's work – sat in cases against each wall. Maps of the Land of Wind and its surrounding nations littered the floor. Cracked pens, ink stains, dirty rags, tools, and scrolls all haunted the vicinity like bloodthirsty phantoms threatening an unsuspecting life. Kiwamura himself was out.

"He's been busy." Kankurou spoke from Gaara's side as the brothers inspected the place. "But he's so unobtrusive…we never had any reason to suspect—'

"No, he's useful," corrected Gaara. "So we would not _want_ to suspect him. An electric wirer from the Waterfall, a village that powers itself with hydroelectricity." The Kazekage's eyes narrowed. "What were we thinking when we hired him?"

"We thought," Kankurou said, "that he was our only option three years ago. There was no other country allied with us that could boast to have an electrician within their borders. Of course," he added, bringing up a thick file clutched in his hand, "the Land of Waterfall did no boasting at all, considering these credentials are forged. I wouldn't be surprised if 'Kiwamura' isn't even his real name."

Gaara didn't so much as glance at the documents, choosing to take Kankurou at his word. "A costly mistake on our part. It leaves the question that if he works for the Mist rather than the Waterfall, why has he waited so long to act?"

"He needed someone to trust him," came a smooth voice from the door. The sand master and the puppet user turned to see a figure in the doorway with a hand resting on a cocked hip, and a smirk forming beneath gleaming teal eyes. "And I can see I'm the only one here witty enough to realize that," continued Temari with a grin at her brothers.

"Temari," greeted Kankurou. "When did you get he—"

"About ten minutes ago," she cut him off. "I got filled in on things from those guards Gaara's supposed to keep with him, and I found out about the attack of the office building three days ago right before I left to come back."

"What about the Chuunin Exam you're supposed to be running?" inquired Gaara, his tone as uninflected as ever.

"Shikamaru's got a handle on things, and I'll be going back when this is cleared." Temari rolled her eyes when both of them simultaneously remembered her engagement to the Nara heir, and she fielded any impending questions. "We'll talk later. As I was saying, Kiwamaru needed someone to trust him while he planned the sabotage on the construction project."

"But he doesn't mingle with anybody," stated Kankurou, folding his arms. "He has no real friends here."

"Sure he does," countered Temari, approaching them. "Someone in the same boat as him, without any fellow ninja from home to spot any possible inconsistencies in his acting. Tenten." She aimed a serious look at Gaara, though worry tinged the shine in her gaze now that she'd mentioned the person Gaara had been having feelings for. "Not a bad choice, considering how close you two were getting. Kiwamura used to speak with Tenten in her shop, however briefly. And they even worked together on a wiring project once. He probably counted on Tenten lobbying for him if you and Kankurou started to give him any flak."

"Except that there's a hole in your theory," Gaara replied evenly. "It was Tenten who had us inspect Kiwamura."

"Then it seems," Temari relayed without missing a beat, "that he talked just a little too much."

She had no sooner arrived at this conclusion when the man in question appeared at the top of the stairs, his arms full of various equipment. His green eyes widened slightly, apparently not having heard their conversation, and some of the paraphernalia clattered loudly to the floor. "Gaara-sama," he murmured, already backing down a couple of steps.

"Come on." Before he could move anymore, Kankurou released a string of chakra that encircled his waist, and he hauled the potential traitor up toward them. "Stay a minute." Kiwamura's knees landed on the hard floor, and he grimaced.

"Please," he implored, "what's going here? I just came to—"

"Devise further your plan," finished Gaara. True fear entered the usually-emotionless man's face, and one could only imagine how the three siblings appeared, cast in the demonic red glow of the lit lanterns. "I tried an unsavory number of times to negotiate with the Land of Water. My efforts were, quite plainly, in vain."

At that, the fear suddenly drained from Kiwamura's expression to be replaced by extreme dislike. "Of course, Kazekage Gaara." His voice had changed now from unknowing to cruelly accepting. "You take our business and our money, first with your shinobi, now with your land. What can a nation do but retaliate as they must?"

"Your daimyo should learn to investigate the feelings of his competition," noted Temari, one eyebrow lifted in lack of impression. "We of the Sand are not without thought to those in the Mist."

"Your pity is unneeded!"

"That's not what it looks like to me," said Kankurou. "Right now, though, we really don't have any pity to give. The Kazekage's office destroyed, innocent people attacked, a good kunoichi taken advantage of—"

"What, that whore?" Kiwamura let out a short peal of mirthless laughter. "That Tenten who dropped you the second she laid eyes on an old teammate? She served her purpose, a suitable distraction to practically everyone here while I infiltrated your obviously weak system and prepared to destroy it all. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if she's with that Hyuuga right now, laughing behind your back while they—"

But he was silenced quite instantaneously by a sand-created hand squeezing around his neck.

"I do not believe," Gaara said quietly, his anger making it difficult to keep his tone and face impassive, "that you want to complete that sentence." Kiwamura gagged, his eyes bulging, and he clawed furiously at the hand that held him but met only tightly-grouped grains of sediment. Gaara released him after several moments, and he fell on his side, wheezing, and was unconscious within seconds.

"What shall we do with him?" Kankurou asked at last.

"Interrogate him," Gaara ordered, remnants of emotion thickening his voice as he headed for the door. "Get the details of his plan and the names of those working with him. Then get in touch with the Mist. He'll make a good example if they try anything again, and…" He paused unexpectedly.

"And what?" His siblings blinked at his back.

"And tell that worthless daimyo of theirs that I am still opening myself to negotiation, whether or not he decides to take advantage of the opportunity."

As Gaara whisked out, Temari turned to look at Kankurou, a sheen of wonder coating her eyes. "That's…"

"Not what I thought he would say," nodded Kankurou. He smiled, then shook his head with a soft chuckle. "Maybe the last three years haven't been a waste like I thought."

"How is Gaara doing?" questioned Temari, watching her brother haul Kiwamura up and over his shoulders.

"Not as bad as you'd think," he replied honestly. "But Tenten…and that Hyuuga Neji…you knew, didn't you? That if he came here, she would—"

"Yeah," she said quickly. "But I was pretty sure, too, that Gaara would…that he'd be fine. Eventually." They stood in silence for a moment, then Temari sighed. "If nothing else, there's been a change in him."

Kankurou nodded his agreement. "And despite the circumstances, I wouldn't say it's a bad one."

* * *

Lee was dragging his pack on the ground, leaving a wide trail in the sand at his feet as he neared the village gates. "I don't think I got enough," he informed the pair at his side. "We're going to need enough to last us three days." 

"Idiot," muttered Neji, though his voice held no true admonishment. "We need more food than dumplings. We've got enough to get home."

"But the dumplings are—!"

Tenten smiled as she listened to them argue, thinking it was much like their Genin days. She still wore a set of plain robes to cope with the heat and would not be changing until tomorrow when they were out of the Land of Wind. Slipping her pack around her shoulders, she turned away from the Konoha shinobi to face the two people seeing them off. "I can't thank you enough for your hospitality."

"Three years is a long time to do the work you've done for us," replied Temari, spreading her hands to take Tenten's. "It's this country that should be thanking you."

"I've already signed the check," Kankurou chortled. "You should be set for quite awhile."

"That doesn't matter," Tenten assured him, but Temari smiled.

"I'll be bringing the rest of your things along when I return to Konoha myself. You're sure you don't mind us taking the apartment here?"

"Consider it my early wedding gift to you and Shikamaru." Tenten had learned that once they married, Shikamaru and Temari planned on spending half the year in either Konoha or Suna, and she highly doubted that they would want to share a residence with Kankurou and Gaara. "Nothing seems like a loss now that the Mist have been stopped."

Neji approached them, touching a hand almost casually to the small of Tenten's back, but the affection was there. Lee bounded over with a wide smile. "Do you think that the Mist's daimyo will want to talk to Gaara-san?" he queried.

"We're not sure," Temari confided. "They're a stubborn group."

Tenten nodded, casting a glance around. "Speaking of Gaara…I guess he decided not to show up."

"He's busy," Kankurou told her apologetically. "What with Kiwamura's followers being apprehended, and the meetings with the contractors, he hasn't had time to—"

Tenten cut him off with a kind word. "I understand. But I…" She looked up at Neji. "It would've been nice to say goodbye."

The silence was awkward for a moment, but then Kankurou held out his hand. "You'll visit?"

"Of course," Tenten smiled, shaking. "I may need a brush-up lesson on chakra strings." She turned her pleased expression to Temari. "Or on how to use tessen."

"Anytime."

And there, in the aridity of the day, friendships forged and strengthened, alliances were renewed. It was, the five of them realized, everything the Lands of Fire and Wind had ever hoped for. Neji and Lee shook hands with Kankurou, Tenten embraced Temari. They weren't warriors, in this moment of goodbye, but people. Human.

Something each of them, from time to time, forgot they were.

Neji turned to Tenten, allowing his fingers to slide from her back into her hand. "Are you ready?"

Tenten closed her eyes, imagining cool streams and shadowy forests and dappled sunlight. She was, it was understood, picturing home. "Yes," she murmured, opening her eyes again and turning them to her other teammate. "Lee?"

He shot her a grin that sparkled. Tenten experienced something new, with Neji holding her hand, and a fully grown Lee staring down at her. She felt…wiser, somehow. Despite the fact that as ninja they could never truly be considered normal people, it was becoming apparent that their lives were not so elaborate that they could not feel what normal people felt. Camaraderie, concern, happiness, belonging…

The three of them – the reformed, rejuvenated Team Gai – crossed the threshold of the Sand village together, leaving the city boundaries and meeting open desert that would become dirt road and brilliant grass before too long. Warmth beat down upon them from above, and suddenly Tenten felt another kind of heat. Halting, she turned her head to the left and then lifted a hand to block the sun's glare as she look upwards.

There, standing on one of the towering cliffs and nearly silhouetted by the sun, was Gaara. His robes flapped as they wished in the high-altitude breeze, and his crossed arms were not forbidding but familiar. The sheen of red hair and the flash of aquamarine eyes made Tenten comprehend that there were things to this place, things to Gaara himself, that she would never forget…nor did she want to.

His life, too, was elaborate. Yet he had seen fit to care for her. She still felt something, but it was platonic now, more sincere and more honest. It was, she suspected, exactly what he had been waiting for.

From up on his cliff with his breeze and his sky, Gaara raised a hand in farewell. And perhaps it was a trick of her mind, a play of the sun, but Tenten truly thought that she could see a smile on his face; one of understanding, of forgiveness, of daring. For he was Gaara, and he would dare again to care for someone else one day.

"Tenten?"

Her reverie broken, she brought her attention back to the man at her side. Meeting cool eyes of pale silver, she stepped toward him, and Neji held her in the way she had dreamed of in the years before the Sand.

"I love you," she murmured. And Neji, when he spoke, asked the question that she had expected, had been waiting for.

"Why?"

Looking up, she grinned. There was light in both her eyes and her voice. "Because you dared to love me."

"You guys!" called Lee from ahead. "Let's show Gai-sensei that we are still youthful and hurry home faster than we ever have before!"

_Home_, Tenten thought. Neji's hand tightened on hers.

It was just one more thing for which they dared to bleed.

**The End**

_Notes: _Ohhhh, it's over! I've had so much fun writing this fic. It became difficult to write here and that, but I think I pulled through, and I'm still so astounded at how many of you liked this fic. I know there were some people that were hoping for things to turn out differently in regards to Tenten "choice" but truly, I planned for her to be with Neji from the beginning – this fic was, after all, a sequel to a smaller fic that was NejiTen from the start. And I tried to be as nice to Gaara as I could, hinting that he'll also find love someday.

Upcoming Projects: Well, I do have another big one planned, but I'm going to take a break for awhile and work on smaller one-shots. Multi-chapter stories are taxing, especially with my job and all of that. But I will tell you that I will be spending time outlining a NejiTen and SasuSaku Chinese Historical AU epic (as challenged by the Neji x Tenten FC) and the fic itself will be debuting sometime next year.

Lastly, thank you to _all _that read this fic and kept so wonderfully in touch. I'm glad you weren't afraid to let me know what you thought and that, for the most part, the response was positive. I hope to keep hearing from you in the future. Again, **thank you **and do take care.

Love,

Nessie


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